Sighted loudspeaker evaluations are demonstrably unreliable

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 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Consumer Reports loudspeaker ratings lacked rigorous subjective validation; High-end audio forfeited credibility by refusing blind testing — , Toole, Floyd E - Sound reproduction-…, 161; The ‘we can’t measure what we hear’ myth stems from inadequate measurements (+1 more)

Related

• High-end audio forfeited credibility by refusing blind testing (similarity 0.93)
• Consumer loudspeakers rated higher than professional monitors in blind tests (similarity 0.90)
• Sighted loudspeaker evaluations are contaminated by non-auditory visual and social cues (similarity 0.88)
• Consumer Reports loudspeaker ratings lacked rigorous subjective validation (similarity 0.88)
• Sighted reviewer claims about cables contradict controlled measurements (similarity 0.87)
• Blind listener tests reliably favor the most neutral loudspeakers (similarity 0.86)
• Sighted listening evaluations are biased regardless of listener expertise (similarity 0.85)
• Roughly 75 percent of people have sufficiently normal hearing to make reliable loudspeaker judgments (similarity 0.85)
• Objective measurements routinely expose flaws that subjective listening reviews miss (similarity 0.85)
• Audible resonances drove low sound-quality ratings in early blind tests (similarity 0.85)
• Historically, published loudspeaker specifications were often artistic rather than factual. (similarity 0.85)
• Sighted evaluations stress trained listeners who no longer accept visual bias. (similarity 0.85)
• Consumer Reports speaker ratings were negatively correlated with blind-test fidelity ratings (similarity 0.84)
• The ‘we can’t measure what we hear’ myth stems from inadequate measurements (similarity 0.84)
• Even expert engineers are biased by non-auditory factors in loudspeaker evaluation (similarity 0.84)

Broader Connections

• High-end audio forfeited credibility by refusing blind testing #expands (0.82) — , Toole, Floyd E - Sound reproduction-…, 161