Michael Scarpitti wrote:
Bruce Abrams wrote in message ...
"Michael Scarpitti" wrote in message
news:YDR0c.160642$uV3.708646@attbi_s51...
*snip*
(snip)


After going through these amps several times, I began to note which
ones had a particular sound, and that sound was consistent from one
trial to the next.

And each time you listened to 'A' which you thought you found bright, you
reinforced that it did, in fact, sound bright.

Not so. I listened again, and confirmed that 'A' sounded bright AFTER
listening. I cannot make this any plainer.

Repeated trials confirmed initial impressions.


The point is, it is simply not worth my time to converse with those
who deny that such differences can be heard at all.

If you would like, go to an audio shop that carries used products of
this kind, and ask to take them home. Hook them up to a set of Stax
Lambdas through a transformer such as the SRD-7.

Then you will hear the differences.

I've already heard exactly such differences between cables, right up until I
realized I was hearing the attributes I'd ascribed to cable 'A', only I was
really listening to cable 'B'. Until you allow for the existence of sighted
bias, a phenomenon that is universally acknowledged to exist, you are
correct in that further conversation on the subject is meaningless.

How can 'bias' lead me to believe that two amps that I have never
heard before. know nothing about, and have no opinion of, sound
consistently different, that is, have consistent sonic characteristics
from one trial to another and that mark them as different from each
other? That is impossible, I put it to you.

It's quite possible, ineed predictable from standard
psychological principles. Your first impression is based on an
expectation of difference; from then on you have the memory
of what you thought they sounded like the first time.

It's *possible* the amps sounded different. It's at least
as likely , and arguably *rather more* likely, that they didn't. Your
method by itself cannot resolve the question. That's due to
simple facts of human psychology.

I had formed no opinion of 'Hafler' sound or 'Harmon Kardon' sound or
'Denon' sound. I had no idea what to expect. The Harmon Kardon
Citation amp had the most impressive literature, and I expected this
one to be rather good-sounding. It was not. It was rather
disappointing, in fact among the very worst. The Denon was clearly
superior. I had no expectation that this would be the case.

You misunderstand what is meant by 'expectation bias'.
The 'expectation' in question is that apparently
different devices will *sound* different.

The point is that I was judging only how they sounded. I did not allow
the sales literature to sway me.

Even if that's true, it does *not* eliminate a fundamental source of bias:
the certain knowledge that the component you are listening to at point B is not
the same one that you listened to at point A. That;s *all* that's required
to generate expectation bias.

--

-S.

"They've got God on their side. All we've got is science and reason."
-- Dawn Hulsey, Talent Director