Hey Serenity
I checked the link and was pleased to see it directed to Robert Harley's (Absolute Sound) book on high end audio. Bob did a book signing down here a few weeks ago. here is an interesting outtake from Wikipedia which mentions our favorite speaker company:
Blind tests refer to experiments where researchers can see the components under test, but not individuals undergoing the experiments. In a double-blind experiment, neither the individuals nor the researchers know who belongs to the control group and the experimental group. Only after all the data has been recorded (and in some cases, analyzed) do the researchers learn which individuals are which. A commonly used variant of this test is the ABX test. A subject is presented with two known samples (sample A, the reference, and sample B, an alternative), and one unknown sample X, for three samples total. X is randomly selected from A and B, and the subject identifies X as being either A or B. Although there is no way to prove that a certain lossy methodology is transparent,[3] a properly conducted double-blind test can prove that a lossy method is not transparent.
Scientific double-blind tests are sometimes used as part of attempts to ascertain whether certain audio components (such as expensive, exotic cables) have any subjectively perceivable effect on sound quality. Data gleaned from these double-blind tests is not accepted by some "audiophile" magazines such as Stereophile and The Absolute Sound in their evaluations of audio equipment. John Atkinson, current editor of Stereophile, stated (in a 2005 July editorial named Blind Tests & Bus Stops) that he once purchased a solid-state amplifier, the Quad 405, in 1978 after blind tests, but came to realize months later that "the magic was gone" until he replaced it with a tube amp.[4] Robert Harley of The Absolute Sound wrote, in a 2008 editorial (on Issue 183), that: "...blind listening tests fundamentally distort the listening process and are worthless in determining the audibility of a certain phenomenon."[5]
Doug Schneider, editor of the online Soundstage network, refuted this position with two editorials in 2009.[6][7] He stated: "Blind tests are at the core of the decades’ worth of research into loudspeaker design done at Canada’s National Research Council (NRC). The NRC researchers knew that for their result to be credible within the scientific community and to have the most meaningful results, they had to eliminate bias, and blind testing was the only way to do so." Many Canadian companies such as Axiom, Energy, Mirage, Paradigm, PSB and Revel use blind testing extensively in designing their loudspeakers. Many audio professionals like Sean Olive of Harman International share this view.[8]
I purchased my first Axiom speakers (M3tis) after reading Doug Schneider's review in SoundStage! His review was not based on a double blind test or the graphs (though graphs were provided). He loved them. I bought 'em, and I loved them too.
Coupling the M3s with a 5wpc SET tube amp gave me my first experience of audio nirvana. I have heard these same M3s with various solid states, and though they sounded good, they did not sound as good.
Now, I do not have a tube amp with sufficient oomph to drive my Thiel CS3.6s and they do sound great with the Integra M504 amp and have provided me with hours of music listening pleasure.
I just prefer the sound of my wee tube amp. Craigsub, maybe you had the wrong tube amp?
Just my experience. Yours may differ. I won't call you wrong if it does.
