The Insanity of Marketing Disguised as Science in Loudspeakers

[Steve81]

Has anyone evert thought about doing a DBT using the same speakers and see what the results are...

Probably. I'm pretty sure there's at least once instance where it was done with wire.

 

[Dennis Murphy]

Probably. I'm pretty sure there's at least once instance where it was done with wire.

That's actually part of the protocol for ABX testing, where the "X" is a "false switch" and functions as a control to make sure people aren't reporting differences simply
because they think a switch has been made. Frank Van Alstine as a cool ABX switching preamp that features a randomly selected sequence of switches between devices A and B and
a phony switch. No one knows the sequence until the end, and it's a very rigorous way to determine whether you're really hearing what you think you're hearing.

 

[Grador]

That's a slight misrepresentation of ABX testing.

ABX provides the subject with an example of A, an example of B, and then an unknown (X) where the subject then tries to decide of X was A or B. So there really isn't a "false switch" as part of ABX testing as you're not going back and forward between A and B but trying to determine what X is.

ABX testing is used when you are trying to ascertain whether or not A and B are discernibly different while A/B is most useful for preference.

 

[Dennis Murphy]

That's a slight misrepresentation of ABX testing.

ABX provides the subject with an example of A, an example of B, and then an unknown (X) where the subject then tries to decide of X was A or B. So there really isn't a "false switch" as part of ABX testing as you're not going back and forward between A and B but trying to determine what X is.

ABX testing is used when you are trying to ascertain whether or not A and B are discernibly different while A/B is most useful for preference.

I guess that is a more accurate description of a pure ABX test (although none of the ones I've participated in were presented to the audience in those terms.) But I'm not sure there's any practical difference. The "X" is either A or B, not a third device. The order of the switch is random, so sometimes the "X" will be the device they were just listening to, and sometimes it will be the other device. Which is to say--sometimes the switch will be real, sometimes it won't.

 

[kjlgpw]

When you mentioned that you could hear the difference between speaker wire, I stopped reading the article. I wasn't interested in anything else you had to say.