Originally Posted By: JBall
I see the merits in a blind test to remove visual bias provided the actual blind test doesn't add its own bias - having the listeners/operators of the test participate knowing the sound character of one of the speakers in the test is a huge bias. I don't think people here are realizing.


It's come up before in discussion. I know sonicfox has made the point, and I'm sure it has been suggested by others. I, myself, am not convinced that direct double-blind ABX listening tests are the final word in speaker comparisons, as I think spending time with each speaker on its own DOES have value. We often talk of how speaker break-in is the brain breaking in, not the actual speaker, and we usually suggest a longer time to get used to the sound than anyone is going to dedicate to a listening test. So how are we supposed to fairly compare speakers when our brains don't have the proper time to acclimate to each speaker's sound? Unfortunately, we have no better way to compare the subjective performance of speakers. In any case, I'll defer to the people who have put in more hours of actual research.