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Ho humm, Double blind listening tests.... well if that's how you guys want to spend your time

I've tried to run two blind listening tests, and one of two things has occurred.

First time, labelled components (cdps at the time) A to G, then cycled them repeatedly, I did the test (years ago when the Denon DCD-325 first came out), 5 people present. At the start the Denon came top of everybodys list of, this was the best player. Two hours later, 4 our 5 had gone for something less forward and exciting, stating that "B" (the Denon) was giving them a headache. The player that they settled on was the group control, my own slightly aged NAD5440, a good 5 years older than the others.

There were two obvious flaws with this, apart from the very obvious listener fatigue that had set in, it had only taken 1 person to say why they liked the Denon at the start, and everybody had agreed with them, and suddenly they all liked it. Opinion only moved as a group, and therefore, the participants must not communicate else the results are going to be tat.

The next time though, was far more interesting and supports what Robbo's been saying all the way through this thread, and which I entirely agree with:

Three amps belonging to 3 different people, A Nad, a Micromega and an Audiolab, blind listening tests, and the other two people couldn't tell the diffence between them. I could, but again I was running the test so I wasn't blind and don't count. Perhaps a bit more treble here etc. was coming back, but put any one on and they couldn't say which of A, B and C it was.

Most disappointed I was, but as they decided they couldn't tell the difference (the bloke with the Micromega was gutted btw) I suggested they swap their amps for a week (I was happy with my Audiolab and kept it ). The Nad lasted two days with the Micromega owner before he was banging at the door wanting his amp back, and the Nad owner with the Micromega? I thought he was going to try and elope with it!!

But remember, in the blind listening tests, they couldn't tell them apart.

Cheers

<blockquote data-quote="timpy" data-source="post: 520589" data-attributes="member: 1070">Ho humm, Double blind listening tests.... well if that's how you guys want to spend your time <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f644.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":rolleyes:" title="Roll Eyes&nbsp; &nbsp; :rolleyes:"&nbsp; data-smilie="11"data-shortname=":rolleyes:" />I've tried to run two blind listening tests, and one of two things has occurred.First time, labelled components (cdps at the time) A to G, then cycled them repeatedly, I did the test (years ago when the Denon DCD-325 first came out), 5 people present.&nbsp; At the start the Denon came top of everybodys list of, this was the best player.&nbsp; Two hours later, 4 our 5 had gone for something less forward and exciting, stating that &quot;B&quot; (the Denon) was giving them a headache.&nbsp; The player that they settled on was the group control, my own slightly aged NAD5440, a good 5 years older than the others.There were two obvious flaws with this, apart from the very obvious listener fatigue that had set in, it had only taken 1 person to say why they liked the Denon at the start, and everybody had agreed with them, and suddenly they all liked it.&nbsp; Opinion only moved as a group, and therefore, the participants must not communicate else the results are going to be tat.&nbsp; The next time though, was far more interesting and supports what Robbo's been saying all the way through this thread, and which I entirely agree with:Three amps belonging to 3 different people, A Nad, a Micromega and an Audiolab, blind listening tests, and the other two people couldn't tell the diffence between them.&nbsp; I could, but again I was running the test so I wasn't blind and don't count.&nbsp; Perhaps a bit more treble here etc. was coming back, but put any one on and they couldn't say which of A, B and C it was.Most disappointed I was, but as they decided they couldn't tell the difference (the bloke with the Micromega was gutted btw) I suggested they swap their amps for a week (I was happy with my Audiolab and kept it <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink&nbsp; &nbsp; ;)"&nbsp; data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /> ).&nbsp; The Nad lasted two days with the Micromega owner before he was banging at the door wanting his amp back, and the Nad owner with the Micromega?&nbsp; I thought he was going to try and elope with it!!But remember, in the blind listening tests, they couldn't tell them apart.Cheers</blockquote>

[QUOTE="timpy, post: 520589, member: 1070"] Ho humm, Double blind listening tests.... well if that's how you guys want to spend your time :rolleyes: I've tried to run two blind listening tests, and one of two things has occurred. First time, labelled components (cdps at the time) A to G, then cycled them repeatedly, I did the test (years ago when the Denon DCD-325 first came out), 5 people present. At the start the Denon came top of everybodys list of, this was the best player. Two hours later, 4 our 5 had gone for something less forward and exciting, stating that "B" (the Denon) was giving them a headache. The player that they settled on was the group control, my own slightly aged NAD5440, a good 5 years older than the others. There were two obvious flaws with this, apart from the very obvious listener fatigue that had set in, it had only taken 1 person to say why they liked the Denon at the start, and everybody had agreed with them, and suddenly they all liked it. Opinion only moved as a group, and therefore, the participants must not communicate else the results are going to be tat. The next time though, was far more interesting and supports what Robbo's been saying all the way through this thread, and which I entirely agree with: Three amps belonging to 3 different people, A Nad, a Micromega and an Audiolab, blind listening tests, and the other two people couldn't tell the diffence between them. I could, but again I was running the test so I wasn't blind and don't count. Perhaps a bit more treble here etc. was coming back, but put any one on and they couldn't say which of A, B and C it was. Most disappointed I was, but as they decided they couldn't tell the difference (the bloke with the Micromega was gutted btw) I suggested they swap their amps for a week (I was happy with my Audiolab and kept it ;) ). The Nad lasted two days with the Micromega owner before he was banging at the door wanting his amp back, and the Nad owner with the Micromega? I thought he was going to try and elope with it!! But remember, in the blind listening tests, they couldn't tell them apart. Cheers [/QUOTE]

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