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Audio Reviewer Becomes Distressed When his Blind Test Fails to Show Expensive USB Cable is the Best

TurbulentCalm

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This video is very sad.

I was shaking my head as he wove his convoluted conclusion that the only reason he could not hear a difference during the tests was because blind testing in general must be seriously flawed, not because he found the expensive cable to be no better than a generic cable.

This goes so show why these faulty understandings are so entrenched in the Subjective Audio community.

 
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DVDdoug

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because blind testing in general must be seriously flawed
Common in the "audiophile" community.

I suppose it's because they think they are "too smart" to be fooled by the placebo effect and they can clearly head a difference in a non-blind test.
 

Spkrdctr

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Dang it! I got suckered in again. You guys are importing click bait trash into our threads. This guy doesn't know what he doesn't know. He read some articles (a couple) and has not got a clue about what his testing showed. He then goes on to make false claims about why there was no difference. Anyone watching him needs to get on ASR and do some learning. I will never get that time back and everything he says is rubbish, but he is so serious!
So all in all, this guy on this video gets a Bozo award. I need a Xanax after watching that.........
 

Koloth

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We all know it isn't really worth bothering with these cable types, but ...

One of the bigger argumentative fallacies constituting the background of all this proverbial noise is this:

proposition A: There are no audible differences between these two cables.
proposition B: Audible differences would be detected in a blind listening test.

Simply attacking B by coming up with reasons why blind listening tests are non-conclusive/flawed/unnatural etc. does nothing to disprove A.

You have to think of it in Bayesian terms:
The evidence - that Lachlan claims audible differences between two cables - is more easily and parsimoniously explained by the hypothesis of sighted biases, consumerist expectation biases, marketing gullibility, object/gear fetishism etc. than by the hypothesis of there being audible differences between these cables that are A.) not traceable in highly resolving electrical measurements and B.) not detectable in blind tests.

All that being said, I do believe there is some truth to the idea that the frame of mind one puts oneself in while doing a blind listening comparison is not conducive to actual perceptual 'openness'. One becomes narrowly focused on minute details, specific elements of music, certain sounds that one attempts to track, store in auditive memory and then compare, thereby easily missing far grander and more obvious differences.

I'm reminded of the famous ape video experiment: Watchers are tasked with counting the number of times balls are passed among a group of players. They watch the video intensely focused on the movements of the balls, keeping track of the number of passes. Afterwards they are being questioned on what they have seen: Almost nobody had noticed the big (person in the costume of an) ape walking through the picture, waving to the camera, etc.
I have had similar things happen to me while comparing audio files. I'm not talking about bit rate or any such thing. I'm talking about different versions of the same track, some with entire musical elements missing (guitars, background drums, violins, etc.). Even though telling them apart is the most trivial thing ever, if you know what the differences are beforehand, I have often found it embarassingly difficult to detect the differences when I didnt know precisely what to listen for. I got lost in tracking minor elements while missing the 'big picture'.

So yes, I do believe the kinds of instantaneous ABX-switching blind tests are cognitively challenging and perhaps flawed.
I also believe that sighted listening comparisons are even more flawed, to the point of utter worthlessness.

The ideal test would imho be a kind of long-term blind listening test, where you live day-to-day with two pieces of gear, never knowing which is actually hooked up at any given day. That way one could break the hyper-focused and constantly self-questioning tunnel vision described above while still excluding sighted biases. Of course it is practically almost entirely unfeasible.
 

Promit

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His soothing accent and calm, measured voice help to obscure the absolute nonsense and occasional ignorance of what he's actually saying. It's hard to be angry at the guy as he genuinely believes what he's talking about. But there are a lot of mental acrobatics happening
 

HiFidFan

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Is it just me or does audiophile nonsense sound just a bit more rational when uttered by a British accent?
 

scrubb

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I have a headache after watching that. Is it caused by the generic USB cables I'm using?
 

audio2design

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All that being said, I do believe there is some truth to the idea that the frame of mind one puts oneself in while doing a blind listening comparison is not conducive to actual perceptual 'openness'. One becomes narrowly focused on minute details, specific elements of music, certain sounds that one attempts to track, store in auditive memory and then compare, thereby easily missing far grander and more obvious differences.

They didn't miss the ape, the ape was not part of the test per-se.

The only restriction on blind testing ... is blind. Listen for 5 seconds, 10 seconds, 5 minutes, 5 days ... don't care. Just that is blind. Simple reality is that in every test, accuracy is far better on noticing differences on short pieces quickly switched. Those grander and obvious differences from long term listening are all in your head.
 

Zensō

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I've watched a few of his videos. Like many subjectivists, he has an overactive imagination. I have to say he's a polite fellow though; I confronted him a few times on some of his irrational conclusions and he was always polite in his responses. Sadly, that doesn't make up for the nonsense he's peddling.
 
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TK750

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British accent? You're killing me, he's an Aussie

Yeh this confusion is also surprisingly common the other way round for Americans, whenever I visit I usually get a few assuming I'm Australian. I think it's because there is a fairly heavy stereotype there that we all speak like the queen.
 

HiFidFan

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British accent? You're killing me, he's an Aussie

Yeh this confusion is also surprisingly common the other way round for Americans, whenever I visit I usually get a few assuming I'm Australian. I think it's because there is a fairly heavy stereotype there that we all speak like the queen.

Oops. Apologies if any Brits or Aussies were harmed by my comment :p
 

radix

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Is it just me or does audiophile nonsense sound just a bit more rational when uttered by a British accent?
As an American, I need to admit that I thought "cool, it's not just our schools."

If one cannot follow the scientific method, one should not be trying to do experiments for the public.
 

antcollinet

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Is it just me or does audiophile nonsense sound just a bit more rational when uttered by a British accent?
Definitely - we can spout nonsense totally convincingly. Just look at cricket: I mean "silly mid off"? Come on!

He on the other hand - is an Aussie - and therefore just talking bollox. :p
 
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escksu

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Why should there be a difference?? Unless your cable is absolutely junk (some early phone charging cables arent suitable for data transfer), there should be 0 difference.

USB cables need to conform to specifications. So once they are met, they will do the job just fine. Very high quality cables that exceeds the standards are great for longer lengths or noisy environment but they do not alter the digital signals. So, there will be no difference at all.
 

Spkrdctr

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The ideal test would imho be a kind of long-term blind listening test, where you live day-to-day with two pieces of gear, never knowing which is actually hooked up at any given day. That way one could break the hyper-focused and constantly self-questioning tunnel vision described above while still excluding sighted biases. Of course it is practically almost entirely unfeasible.

Problem is that is has been proven that you can't do a long term listening test. Anything over a few minutes and it all breaks down. Amir has posted on this site about listening tests and possibly a video too. The mind can only focus on sound differences in the short term. Humans do not have a long term musical memory. You must also remember that even as that Bozo said, he was sure they could hear easy differences. Even his wife heard it from the kitchen (he left that part out.) So it always, always goes from Wow, I really hear a difference to testing, and they can't tell a difference. It is not the test, it is the person who thinks they can tell a difference when they can't. But, to properly address this issue would take writing a book. Anyway, he did revert to the subjectivists claim to fame. "Sure I can't hear a difference, but it is the blind test that made it that way. Let me know which is which and I can tell you all about the differences I hear". Bure BS.
 
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Spkrdctr

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I do want to say that 95% of the people on this great site have never been involved with real testing in verifying claims that xyz is a huge difference in a system. I have. In fact we specialized in testing well known audiophiles who claimed the differences were HUGE, anyone could hear the difference. It would be no work at all to hear the difference. A child could do it. Someone half deaf could hear it. But when tested they ALL had a 100% failure rate. No one has every passed an audibility test in a listening environment with speakers. Never, over 40 years of testing. If anyone had passed, the snake oil salesman would point to it forever. Everyone would hear about it. In audio we reinvent the wheel over and over and over.

Every generation thinks they thought up the new fangled wheel. It is the audio business that keeps the dream of snake oil alive. Every single audio company marketing department is full of lies. How else can it be said?
 
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Russell484

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USB Cables do make a staggering difference in sound - I read that in an magazine ad for very expensive cables. So I tested the expensive boutique cables against my everyday cables. I was listening to early Bob Dylan on the everyday cables - sounded good, just like Bob. Then I set up the expensive Yankuchayne cables and suddenly I was listening to Pavarotti singing. I couldn't believe it. I never knew Dylan could sing opera arias. But when I put on a real Pavarotti record he sounded like Pavarotti with the expensive boutique cables but when I switched to the cheap everyday cables, he suddenly sounded like Johnny Cash. Amazing! Then the alarm went off and I woke up.
 
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