I have nothing against an objective approach and use measurements extensively along with listening.

I have nothing against 'blind' or 'double blind' listening tests either. Care must be taken for these to have any meaning however.

For example, In an A-B comparison the hearing tends to compensate for what has gone before. So if I'm listening to a speaker with a 3dB peak at 100Hz and then I listen to a 'flat' speaker, the flat speaker will sound like it has a trough at 100Hz. Therefore, I prefer to live with a product for a while before I can draw any meaningful conclusions. Of course then one's memory is the weakest link.

It's difficult to have a 'blind test'. Speakers should be tested alone in a room to avoid exciting each others' resonances. Therefore they need some sort of curtain or screen. A curtain that is visually opaque generally degrades the sound.

Cables, amps, etc. are easier to test blind but the difficulties of the mind compensating when switching from one product to another still applies (where there is a difference).

At the Bristol show we switched off the display on the Wadia cd player and put an LP on the turntable so it was difficult for anyone to know what was playing, cd or vinyl. The audience was blind (until we changed the disk) but not double blind - we knew.