No pmb, I don't think double blind testing is a necessary precondition to making an unbiased ranking judgment. While it may be a superior methodology, I trust myself enough to make such judgments for myself and have surprised myself by choices which defied expectations both for the better, no change and for the worse.
BTW, as to those on this board who maintain that all solid state amps sound the same, interconnects and speaker cable don't make any difference, tube amps and tube output CDPs generate a warm wash of distortion and hum, I'm not aware that any proponents of these opinions has conducted any double blind tests either.
Look, pmb, I can only report my experiences, what has worked for me, and what hasn't. If my experience which I truthfully report is at odds with the party-line of some true-believers, or contrary to their theoretical expectations, that's too bad. It seems to me that their opinions are entitled to no a priori preference to mine.
Please don't equate the belief that all solid state amps sound the same with the theory of relativity or survival of the fittest, just because the holders of the all-solid-state-amps-sound-the-same theory consider themselves 'scientists.'
I have repeatedly invited fellow Axiom board members to come by and listen to a nice tube amp fed by a nice CDP with a tube output and connected together by my favorite speaker wires. So far, no takers. After all, why bother when you already know the answer?
