Pardon my ignorance, but what would be credible evidence in this case? It seems you don't consider the many positive experiences reported by people who use them to be credible.
Yep, you are right, it is so far from being credible that I need a telescope.
Perhaps if you accept positive experiences, then you will acceptance of psychic abilities? Homeopathic medicines? Astrology? Alien abductions? There are loads of positive experiences reported for these as well. The list is endless, really.
Credible is something you can replicate, bias controlled and has statistically significant outcome. Yours, all those others are biased, uncontrolled listening experiences. You know, stories, testimonials I read for products.
How do you measure the difference a product like this contributes (or doesn't) to the audible sound, and how can you be sure how that measurement will translate audibly to a person's ear?
Well, firstly, we could conduct some bias controlled listening experiments with and randomly without those pads under components and you can be the judge on how many correctly guessed outcome happens. Anything not considered significant outcome is just guessing. That simple. Then, one can measure FR and levels to start with? But the listening test will tell the story. My bet is guessing will be the outcome.
At the end of the day, I'd like to think that I can have a reasonable amount of trust when it comes to (subjective) perceptions of audio quality in what my own two ears hear, just as I think I can have a reasonable amount of trust in what in my own two eyes see when it comes down to video quality (what looks good to my eyes).
Why is that? How did you earn your exemption from bias to be trusted for audible differences between components or that isolation pad? Or, anyone for that matter? Besides, perception doesn't guarantee real events. Not interested in imagined ones.
Same with eyes. My experience with that 5gal bucket of water and a steel pipe is not reality, but an illusion. Why would I trust what I see happening to that steel pipe in that bucket of water? Or, why would I believe or trust my eyes watching Uri Geller, or David Copperfield, for that matter?
How about that parallax view? What is reality? All cannot be real, can it?
I've heard my share of different audio gear and some has sounded better to me than others. I'd hate to think that I can't trust any of my perceptions when it comes down to auditioning audio gear,
That depends on what you are after. A personal preference, or reality of audible differences. If the former, have at it, disregard everything I have written, just be careful about making testable claims about audible differences that you are making. If the latter, then you need different protocols, bias controlled, levels matched testing. Incontestable.
that I can't trust my perceptions enough to allow myself to enjoy the improvement I think my ears hear in a certain audio component just because someone conducted an experiment that says I shouldn't hear any difference at all.
If you want personal enjoyment, you don't need any one's input; listen and just enjoy, real or imagined. As to experiments, I wonder why anyone conducts experiments then.
Again, I'm not saying that we should buy everything everyone tries to sell us, but what is the use of equipment reviews if ultimately we can't trust the perceptions of a good number of people?
Whom do you want to trust and Why? How do you know they are reliable, objective and not biased? What tests have they passed or proven themselves?
Well, need to be very, very careful and how far.
Anyway, as I stated above, in the end for me it comes down to what sounds good to my ears, and the vibrapods sound good to my ears.
then just enjoy. That is all there is to it.
