High-end audio forfeited credibility by refusing blind testing
Evidence
As far as the real world is concerned, high-end audio lost its credibility during the 1980s, when it flatly refused to submit to the kind of basic honesty controls (double-blind testing, for example) that had legitimized every other serious scientific endeavor since Pascal. — , Toole, Floyd E - Sound reproduction-…, 161
Categorization
- XREF: connects to: Speaker cables and devices show near-zero audible differences in blind tests; Blind listener tests reliably favor the most neutral loudspeakers — Toole, Floyd E, Sound reproduction- the acoustics and…, 1958; Sighted loudspeaker evaluations are demonstrably unreliable (+4 more)
Related
- Sighted loudspeaker evaluations are demonstrably unreliable (similarity 0.93)
- Blind listener tests reliably favor the most neutral loudspeakers (similarity 0.90)
- Consumer loudspeakers rated higher than professional monitors in blind tests (similarity 0.90)
- Speaker cables and devices show near-zero audible differences in blind tests (similarity 0.89)
- Audible resonances drove low sound-quality ratings in early blind tests (similarity 0.89)
- Blind listening tests make subjective sound judgments objective and repeatable (similarity 0.87)
- Subjective tests have no right answers because each listener’s perception is unique (similarity 0.85)
- Blind listeners largely agreed on loudspeaker preferences, matching measurement quality (similarity 0.84)
- Sighted reviewer claims about cables contradict controlled measurements (similarity 0.84)
- Engineers distrusting blind tests converted upon seeing correlations with their measurements. (similarity 0.84)
- Psychoacoustic knowledge rests entirely on subjective listening tests, not direct measurement (similarity 0.84)
- Headphone blind tests cannot use automated shuffling, so tactile cues leak into results. (similarity 0.83)
- Early blind loudspeaker comparison relied on single overall preference ratings (similarity 0.83)
- Subjective audio opinions can behave like facts when gathered under controlled conditions (similarity 0.83)
- Highly trained listeners can repeat subjective judgments with remarkable consistency (similarity 0.83)
Broader Connections
- Blind listening tests make subjective sound judgments objective and repeatable
#expands(0.80) — , Toole, Floyd E - Sound reproduction-…, 87