Perception and measurement

[pkane2001]

7 minutes ago, Michaelb4 said:

At some point isn’t about what you hear? Last week I sat down to listen to Ben Webster and drink a little bourbon. The most relevant measurement I guess was the amount of bourbon in the glass. 
 

Do measurements make people want to seek the more perfect?  I guess it is about rational decision making but it all seems a little weird to me. 

 

Bourbon (and even more so, single malt scotch) is a very rational and measured approach to improving sound quality. No need to feel bad about it.

[pkane2001]

37 minutes ago, photonman said:

hand written barrel number boldly marked, it sure does make it more special and taste better

 

Let's try a blind test on that one. Let's see if the hand-written barrel number really makes a difference. For a statistically significant result, you'll need to repeat at least 10-15 times with a p value of less than 0.05. By the end of a test, double-blindness is guaranteed: you'll see double and be legally blind.

 

[pkane2001]

21 hours ago, SoundAndMotion said:

Doing a discrimination test is effectively saying: "I don't believe you. Prove it." I could ask him to just do it as a favor, but I'm sure he wouldn't. It would be much easier to discuss whether he really always prefers silver, and then discuss/set up a preference test that would have enough trials to statistically answer whether there really was discrimination.

 

All audio manufacturers should run these types of experiments. They should send out a number of placebo devices and a number of real ones to determine how much of the effect is due to other factors than the claimed differences in sound.

 

[pkane2001]

1 minute ago, mansr said:

Audirvana inadvertently did that once, sort of, when two of the DSD modulator settings were in fact identical. Some people still "preferred" one over the other.

 

These types of accidents can be quite illuminating. 

[pkane2001]

35 minutes ago, emcdade said:

It matters because there could be motivation to act in bad faith, and no way to control for that????

 

Remind me how is this controlled for in a sighted test?

[pkane2001]

24 minutes ago, emcdade said:

It’s not and to ask that question shows you’re missing the point.

 

If you have two people and one guy believes that there could be no difference and the other believes there could be, you ask the guy who believes there is a difference to prove it by performing the test.  That’s all I’m saying. His motivation would be unquestioned.

 

No, I got that. I've given up long ago on asking others to prove something to me. All I want to know is if you tried to prove it to yourself. 

[pkane2001]

46 minutes ago, emcdade said:

I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about.

 

Happy Holidays.

 

Of course. Happy Holidays.