[Sonnova]

On Mon, 13 Jul 2009 04:15:28 -0700, Arny Krueger wrote
(in article ):

"Harry Lavo" wrote in message


It is interesting to note that my attempt to define how
such validation of ABX testing for evaluation of
differences in musical reproduction might be done, here
on RAHE a few years ago, the attempt wasn't met by
constructive dialog but rather repeated attempts to
ridicule and disparage (a) the idea of the validation
itself ("it wasn't needed...ABX was 'settled science' ")
and (b) the specific suggestions of test techniques and
sequences made by me (themselves used extensively in the
realm of food testing and psychological experimentation).

Harry, it is clear to many of the rest of us that there are many people in
the world who try to give their lives purpose by:

(1) Finding a situation that may or may not even exist and that only they
and perhaps a few other people even perceive to be a problem.

(2) Trying to promote some expensive and unwieldy method for purportedly
solving the purported "problem".

Good examples of such a thing would be the SACD and DVD-A formats that
followed this model quite exactly.

(1) Promoters of DVD-A and SACD alleged the existence of sound quality
problems with the Audio CD format that not even they could demonstrate by
conventional means other than the well-known and totally invalid methodology
of sighted or single blind evaluation.

Have you ever done a DBT test between a RedBook CD of a particular title and,
say, a high-resolution download (24/96 or 24/192) of the same title? I have.
They're different. And the differences aren't subtle. The high-resolution
download wins over the CD every time (so far).

(2) They spent actual millions if not 100's of millions of dollars invented
new recorders and players based on their new technology, and additional
equal or greater amounts of money recording and re-recording existing
recordings in the new format.

To this day there is no conventionally-obtained evidence that shows that the
new formats had any inherent audible benefits at all, the products never
were accepted in the mainstream, and many of the record company executives
that bet their careers on the new formats lost their jobs.

That's simply not true, Arny. High resolution recordings in either PCM or DSD
sound significantly better than RedBook CD and carefully set-up DBT testing
has demonstrated that to my satisfaction (Levels matched as closely as
instrumentation will allow, time sync'd between, for instance, two identical
players one playing the SACD layer and the other playing the RedBook layer
or, one of my own recordings is played back from my master which level
matched and sync'd to a CD burned from that master using Logic Studio or
Cubase 4).