My own epiphany came after a very famous audiophile went onto an ABX or close to ABX trying to identify his own expensive cables versus run of the mill Monster cable speaker cables. I was honestly certain he was going to ace the test and make us all subjectivist audiophiles proud. He didn’t. I replicated this test in some ways having a friend switch the cables in an order unknown to me; very approximate level matching with a radio shack SPL meter on some songs. Other audiophiles present and myself were utterly unable to distinguish my rather expensive cables from a Pair of 6 AWG electrical cables.
That was a turning point for me. I continued to test myself and many other things including electronics. For the most part they sounded the same. I find and somewhat maintain that amps, Speakers are a completely different story.
One can go somewhere and listen to various gear in presence of those who sell them. The better salespersons will influence you. Your own biases will influence in a not subtle way. Many of those biases are from difficult to impossible to remove. And don’t believe yourself thinking you can will them out. We can’t. You can’t. The best we have are ABX blind tests, they are not easy to conduct. The second best are level matched blind test. They can educate many.
I have been an audiophile for almost 50 years. The best site that I have come across is ASR. It educates challenges and tests. There are luminaries on this site. There are people whose level in things Audio and Engineering are World Elite. They share their knowledge and steer us toward better audio reproduction in our home. Long live this site.
That was a turning point for me. I continued to test myself and many other things including electronics. For the most part they sounded the same. I find and somewhat maintain that amps, Speakers are a completely different story.
One can go somewhere and listen to various gear in presence of those who sell them. The better salespersons will influence you. Your own biases will influence in a not subtle way. Many of those biases are from difficult to impossible to remove. And don’t believe yourself thinking you can will them out. We can’t. You can’t. The best we have are ABX blind tests, they are not easy to conduct. The second best are level matched blind test. They can educate many.
I have been an audiophile for almost 50 years. The best site that I have come across is ASR. It educates challenges and tests. There are luminaries on this site. There are people whose level in things Audio and Engineering are World Elite. They share their knowledge and steer us toward better audio reproduction in our home. Long live this site.
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