Speaker Cables Sound the Same - Still

[DCPreamp]

I found this double-blind-test well performed and interesting.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...ht=transparent

Looks like James Randi's $1,000,000 is still safe.

[SY]

with this methodology, and with this methodology ONLY, we could not reliably discern any differences in the cables. This does not prove that there are no differences with the cable, only that there were no differences discerned with this method.

I was delighted to read this.

[soongsc]

I couldn't find what amp and speakers were used.

[Eva]

What we see and what we know exerts a very strong influence on what we believe to hear. Our senses are tied.

We must know nothing and see nothing if we want to arrive to unbiased listening impressions.

[soongsc]

How does ET really sound? If we don't know one as a reference, there is no way of describing something new based on common knowledge, and thus no way of properly decribing new findings. Therefore we must know somthing in common.

[janneman]

This is an interesting test, but IF I would play Devil's Advocate I would say that it is a pity they stopped so early after a limited number of trials. From a formal point of view you can criticize the statistics.

Example: suppose you do a series of coin flips and 8 straight heads come up, do you conclude that the coin is loaded? No. If you do 1000 series of 8 coin flips you can almost guarantee that at least one serie will come up with 8 straight heads (or tails). The chance that you hit that straigt 8 as the first series is a whopping 1: 1000. You really need to complete the full 1000 series to get any meaningful result.

Jan Didden

[Jakob2]

We must know nothing and see nothing if we want to arrive to unbiased listening impressions.

Short and precise.

It´s very preferable to get in the mental state of awareness during a blind test procedure.
In this mental state nearly all brain areas will be on the edge for something new.

It needs some practice/training to reach this state just when needed.

[Nordic]

and we only seem to fall into this state when otherwise occupied...

[rabbitz]

As they said, even though you might not be able to pick cable A or cable B reliably, that doesn't mean there are no differences.

[SY]

No, it just means that the test subjects couldn't hear the difference with that particular setup.

Of course, when this happens enough times with continued null results for any test where the cables or driving amp aren't pathological, at some point a reasonable person will conclude that it's mostly hype, marketing, imagination, and sociology, and use a stable amp and reasonable wire, then concentrate his efforts elsewhere.