Michael Larkin
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- May 9, 2021
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One can witness dogmatism on both sides of the aisle, that's for sure.
[Incidentally, the placebo effect, though often quite short-lived, sometimes it can last years and is a genuine phenomenon. I remember watching a documentary where people supposedly had hip surgery, but actually didn't. Years later, some of them were still walking around apparently fine and dandy, even when they had learnt that their "surgery" was bogus. Go figure].
That aside, the sense in which you mean placebo I'd apply not only to persons who convince themselves something is an imaginary benefit, but to those who convince themselves no such benefit could possibly exist. Expectation bias can play into either proclivity.
That hi-fi equipment measures differently is a fact we can all agree on. That such measurement reflects how it sounds is more subjective, more open to narrative/interpretation. Someone who believes DACs all sound the same might convince himself that that's so even if there are differences. OTOH, someone who believes this DAC sounds better than another might be deluding himself. Maybe one could test the former through A/B/X, but not tell him what was different -- could be a DAC, amp, or streaming transport for instance. That way, he'd be less likely to allow expectation bias based on prior belief to influence him.
After all, people's systems do sound different, don't they? If they didn't, we'd all be in audio nirvana at very reasonable cost. Some items do usually make an easily discernible difference -- speakers for example, though I have heard speakers, sometimes of entirely different kinds and prices, that sounded very similar, so one can't over-generalise. Amps, once one gets to a certain level, IMHO often sound pretty samey. My primary c. £2000 preamp/amp combo doesn't in absolute terms sound tremendously different from the £600 integrated in my secondary system.
And yes, I am 75 as it happens -- did you know that, BTW, and if so how? Maybe I mentioned that previously? Don't think so, but my memory's not what it was
. I can hear clearly to around 11 khz in both ears. Not in my prime, it is true, but that covers most of the likely audio spectrum.As to Amir's chart, I don't rely on it -- I have or have had a few items in his lists, and whilst I can't disagree with his measurements, I can disagree about the correlation of some of those with how they actually sound. See, if people start off with an unreserved belief that measurements correlate with perceived sound quality, it might lead to confirmation bias. Like I said, placebo effects could lean both ways.
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reminds me of silly trollface comics with schwoopy loopy arms.
