The truth about interconnects - can you handle it?

The best way is to live with the component under test for three months. Blind test is not a very accurate way to compare different components anyway. As posted by others, a normal listening is not to switch cable every 5 min, I don't care you double or triple or .... Some need longer time to settle, and those cables will lose in blind test. And people are nervous and tired in the tedeous "blind" test. You listen to Beethoven 9'th and say "what a great music" at end. I don't think you will say any good thing if I switch between Beethoven and Mozart every 5 min. Or repeat the same section every 5 min.

Actually, most of people can tell the difference between cables. It just takes more CD and system tweak to make sure what you think better is generally true for most of music and the variation of your system setup. Any component, like source, IC, amp...., should be tested in a natual listening condition in your home and rest of setup, and please give it enough time. "Blind Test" can be dangerous, are you sure those tester have the same taste and ears as yours? Even you do the blind test yourself, are you sure no simple system tweak can reverse your first vote? The only sure way is to play around with it for a while in your daily life.

Dandreescu,

The point is not to remember which cable has tighter bass or high. The point is: do you like the sound/music or not after you listen and tweak for enough time? So you know the best you can get from this cable. Very often, a component impress people at first listening does not keep the excitement long. Especially we don't want to bet our hundreds CD's collection on one or two namely reference CD's. I know many friends regret their purchase realizing later that the particular component is only good for <20% of their CD collections. And actually a so called better high and low componet make 80% of their collection sound worse. It is not uncommon to hear this.
I personally had experience of blaming on wrong components before. Like some cables or CD players were edgy.... and later found the room was the cause. After fixing my room, the edgy cable became better cable. The other example is the bass: after using a better transport, the bass is tighter and reverse my vote on my IC. The other way around, I change my mind on some DAC becasue switching around digital cables.
So, a good component lasts! it responds well for most music and associated gears you throw at it and should last long.
I still remember which CD or LP I enjoy very much tens years later.
Maybe I remember the amp or speaker, but I usually forget which cable I used with them.
Only remember recent cables I have been playing around.
A good cable should not remind you about cables all the time, otherwise there is a bug in your system.

Like man will not know woman on the first date, and definitely should not A/B girl friends in a short time bcz it won't work.
Eventually, we will find it out after marriage after man and woman live together.
Same as music and our gears.

Even some journal put out so call "blind test result", how many of us will trust it? I think many will say "a bunch of lousy listener" to replace "this crappy commercial writer". We still will not have conclusion.