homemade noize

A while ago I started to deeply think about the audiophile phenomenon after reading about The Amazing Randi and his dealings with Stereophile and those marketing equipment to audiophiles(A.K.A. suckers). Then last month I saw this business with hangers versus monster cables that caused me to look for more info on double blind testing of audio equipment. I intended on posting this earlier but frankly did not find much of what I was really after and I consider myself at least a decent googler. Maybe the Internets is not the best place to look for facts?

That probably is the case but I know there is more to it than that. Not a lot of people have that have the means to do a bunch of tests. And the ones that do have few reasons to do so and sometimes lots of reasons not to. Is some print or online publication going to do tests that have the potential to piss off there advertisers? Buying equipment just to test is unrealistic for us normal Joe’s. A good test is not a easy thing to do scientifically. I a lot of what I found was just some guy in a forum saying him and his buddy tested such and such as best they could. Not very scientific maybe but the best that could be done on many occasions. It is kind of a pain to do it right and involves things that most people don’t find particular entertaining like statistics and careful planning.

I just wanted to know test results out of curiosity and a desire to let go of my misconceptions. What I was most interested in was modeling versus the really thing I didn’t find to much on that. I hear a lot of opinions on this topic but it always seems the opinion giver started out biased one way or another. That an anecdotes but nothing very meaningful. I am sure I have my biased and foolish beliefs also but I would like to get rid of them. Even as a pretty skeptical person am sure of prejudices can really color my perception of sounds or anything else for that matter.

The tests though revealing are not a lot of fun. It is human nature to believe in the power of certain objects. We want to believe in them. Our myths and history are filled with them like Excalibur, holy relics, talismans, lucky charms, Starbucks Coffee, Mullard tubes, etc. Myth dispelling is not always fun.

I think a lot of the myths need to dispelled though. Products who’s value is only supported by the fact that it is expensive and/or rare. I am always leery of anything that has a huge jump form other similar products or is proceeded by NOS, vintage, etc. Not that some old product aren’t great but by no means all of them are. And price is only what some is will to pay not what it costs to make or what it is worth.

It is not all about expense and the prestige of owning a fancy piece of gear. I new a guy that cut racket balls in half and set is tuner and cd player on them. He was sure it made things sound better. Everyone likes to think they have an edge including me. I just wish I had a better idea what is reality and what is just my bias’s, skepticism or desire.

There are some links below if you are interested. I tried to keep out the less authoritative ones.

Music Thing A synth test you can take yourself. (I didn’t have a clue)

PC ABX testing software

The Listening Sessions a bunch or recording the could be used in ABX test and just interesting to hear

Christian’s Blog has a VST ABX tester

David Carlstrom has post alot of ABX data

(Georg Mueller Stefan Trippler Synthesizer-Hörtest)-all blind synth sample links from above

recordproducer.com-mic preamp test
Home audio

Logical Lead Guitar

Lynch: Tape will always be in there somewhere. I’m sure we’ll always be doing that with double blind tests. Every time I’ve done the double blind test we opted for the Pro Tools: ‘OK, I’m not going to tell you what you’re listening to, you tell me what you like.’ I always pick Pro Tools, as much as I hate to admit that and didn’t want to pick Pro Tools.

Lutherie Information Website bass preamp test

Mobile Music

maxiumpc-earbuds and digital music files

Hi-Fi Stuff

Wired Pear cables chickens out

NY Times-Excellent article on cables.

hometheraterhifi.com -powercord test

Richard Cark $10,000 Amp Challenge

THE CONSUMERIST coat hangers vs. monster cables

MISC.

some technical statistics stuff