<b>If someone changes the caps in an amp/speaker expecting to hear some difference, he will probably hear a difference whether or not there actually is one. If he expects improvement, he will hear it. If he expects degradation, he will hear it. Expectations bias the outcome. PSYCH 101, day 1.</b>
Absolutely. But so does peering at a meter and having it tell you that some parameter, which <i>may or may not</i> actually make a sonic difference, will produce the same result.
The limitation with DBT and ABX is, that differences only are apparent in these methods, not neccessarily improvements, and that the test and proceedures may, in and of themselves, introduce enough error due to engineering or psychological errors, to render the results useless. Sometimes subtleties are not always apparent at first glance. Have you not ever met a person you didn't like for some reason initially, and yet extended contact brought out other aspects of them that were not immediately apparent, which you appreciated more with time? And vice-versa. So it is too, with equiptment.
As I listen to more people's systems, and communicate with them more, I'm seeing more clearly just how differently we all hear from each other, and how different all our individual biasses are. No one is immune to bias, and so long as our biasses and preferences are not harmful to us, why get all hung up about what someone else likes?
What seems to me is missing here is a middle way. My background is EE and psychotherapy, and my comments on what <b>I hear</b> something sound like are based <b>my</b> experience. And of course my biasses. However, part of the fun in DIY especially is that you can experiment, and God forbid, make a mistake and change it realtively easily and cheaply. I will change components in, listen for a while. Sometimes I <i>know</i> they are right, sometimes not. If I feel the need or desire to try something different, even the original component. I trust my instinct and experience, and don't give a rat's toss what anyone else thinks. The goal of my system is to bring me pleasure through the music, and if that comes through a system that measures badly, stiff. I would rather be sitting on my couch awestruck at the beauty of Alison Krauss' voice through the "poor" system than one "technically" perfect, that leaves me cold.
Secondarily, for me, it's a fun engineering project. For much of my working life, I've had access to lots of nice test gear, and used it, much to the chagrin of my employers. HP spec-ans, Tek TDR's were my tools at work (until my recent move) and I'm usually curious enough to want to know why something is different. Can we measure the change to help with pushing the performance envelope? Yes, THD, IMD, SNR etc can be measured, but as the <i>listener</i> is a huge part of the equation, how do you measure them or their responses reliably? Music is a HUMAN <b>experience</b>, and human beings are messy creatures, not easily able to be described, defined or categorised.
I think many people also get hung up on the idea of a "monitor" (absolutely must have perfect reproduction of everything on the source) system as their stereo. absolutely must have perfect reproduction of everything on the source. From my experience in recording, reinforcement, broadcasting and production, a monitor is a tool. It is meant to render everything glaringly apparent, and a good one will, and help you to correct, or even shape the sound to the desired result. Doesn't mean it's gonna be pleasant to listen to though, and that I'm going to want to sit and listen to disc after disc through it, for pleasure. If "technically best" fails to touch my heart, then it fails.
<b>This debate has gone on since people have had brains to argue with and we're not going to solve it here. If you have the money and time to spend in pursuit of some ideal that exists in your mind, then by all means go for it.</b>
Yes again. But if you understand and accept that you cannot possibly, ever, acheive an ideal, you can have lots of fun with the <i>process</i>. And you never know, you might learn something about yourself too.
Peace to all.