2. tech-talk
  3. 1421262840

In defense of ABX testing

We Audiophiles need to get ourselves out of the stoneage, reject mythology, and say goodbye to superstition. Especially the reviewers, who do us a disservice by endlessly writing articles claiming the latest tweak or gadget revolutionized the sound of their system. Likewise, any reviewer who claims that ABX testing is not applicable to high end audio needs to find a new career path. Like anything, there is a right way and many wrong ways. Hail Science!

Here's an interesting thread on the hydrogenaudio website:

http://www.hydrogenaud.io/forums/index.php?showtopic=108062

This caught my eye in particular:

"The problem with sighted evaluations is very visible in consumer high end audio, where all sorts of very poorly trained listeners claim that they have heard differences that, in technical terms are impossibly small or non existent.

The corresponding problem is that blind tests deal with this problem of false positives very effectively, but can easily produce false negatives."
psag

Showing 1 response by tom32

tom32
33 posts
 

This bleeding thing is a bit off topic, but since it keeps coming up, I thought I'd clarify that issue. (because I have no good opinion on the ABX thing)

During ancient and medieval times doctors believed in "the humor theory". It's pretty complicated and a bit funny by modern standards, but the short explanation is that the blood carries liquids called "humors". A sick person has bad humors in their blood and you have to let it out. Thus "blood letting". A person in good humors is healthy.

This theory died out in the 1700's and early 1800's, when the new and wonderful "germ theory" of disease became more popular.

For medical testing, doctors would normally draw a sample of the blood and check the color and taste. Good humors taste good, I imagine. =-}

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humorism

I read a lot of ancient writings...
More to discover