solderdude
Grand Contributor
In short - they can't discover which DUT is better, but only - which DUT is closer to reference.
So closer to the reference is not better performance ?
One could argue closer to the reference is not preffered by some but that is taste/preference not actual fidelity.
We need to establish what is meant with 'better'.
Does 'better' mean closer to the original signal waveform or does 'better' mean preferred by someone/a lot of people ?
We may be talking about different 'betters' and different 'fidelity'.
Audibility differs from person to person and from recording to recording.
You cannot pin a number on it.
I applaud the efforts to try and find a single 'fidelity' number but one cannot put taste in it.
When looking at the vast differences in tonal balance (linear distortion) of headphones for instance we can see that some folks like bass shy headphones yet others find very dark and bassy headphones (like Nighthawk etc.) to be neutral and have the most realistic headphone.
Of course this has been investigated and the result is known. However, this too is an 'average', a compromise. Based on science of course.
But it is known that trained listeners have a different preference than less trained people.
I really do want to see a metric that shows a good relation to perceived SQ that works for everyone.