Can you participate to a listening test?

[Julf]

On/Off switch, time between tests, PS, how clean and stable current is...

 

This is an hypothesis of what can happen downstream.

 

And the hypothesis is that if you turn the On/Off switch to "Off", "harmonic distribution on the DAC outputs" (whatever that is) changes? I don't think anyone will dispute that one...

[manisandher]

... The problem is that you are asking people to subjectively evaluate if they hear a difference or not. You have no way of knowing if they *really* hear a difference... So what you have shown is that some people think that they can hear a difference. I think I could have told you that in advance

 

Yeah, but we had no idea that the files were actually different. OK, so a 50:50 call for us. In both the Italian and the CA tests it was more 35:65 for I:nI...

 

If I'm asked to tell the difference between a blue car and a red car, is this a purely subjective test (assuming my eye sight is good)? Of course, asking which I prefer if I do see a difference is indeed purely subjective.

 

FWIW, I did not think I could hear a difference, as you suggested some of us might of. In other listening tests (your own included) I've stated how easy or difficult I found it. Here I stated, "definitely nI" - the difference was clear and repeatable. I even went on to describe these clear and repeatable differences.

 

Mani.

[Julf]

Yeah, but we had no idea that the files were actually different.

 

You are being given two files to listen to, and you have no idea that they might be different?

 

If I'm asked to tell the difference between a blue car and a red car, is this a purely subjective test (assuming my eye sight is good)? Of course, asking which I prefer if I do see a difference is indeed purely subjective.

 

Hmm. This is pretty basic stuff about controls and experiments.If I ask you to tell which car is blue and which is red, I can objectively verify if you can tell which one is which. If I only ask "can you see a difference? " and you say "yes", how do I know that you really see a difference? You might be color blind, or in fact totally blind, and still say "yes" - and there is no way to objectively verify if you do see it or not. So yes, it is a purely subjective test.

 

Suggested reading: Wikipedia: Designed Experiment

[manisandher]

Hey Julf, thanks for the recommeded reading. But in the early 90s I spent the best part of three and a half years under ground doing my PhD in phonon spectroscopy on low dimensional structures using superconducting tunnel junctions, so don't feel I really need it. Perhaps you didn't see the title of my post ("Not scientific...").

 

ANY listening tests conducted through an internet forum are NOT going to be scientific. It would be great if the scientists here stopped telling us so. WE KNOW thanks.

 

But I find these tests fun (or at least I used to before people started making condescending remarks about my knowledge of scientific method - OK, I couldn't recite Kuhn word for word, but I know the general gist). And from a purely individual perspective, I find that I learn something about my own listening skills and system.

 

Oh and I certainly didn't assume the two files were different. Why the hell would I? It was a test after all! And anyway, if it was so bloody obvious that they were different, why did 35% still state they were identical? (Yes, I know it's not statistically significant.)

 

Mani.