Single-stimulus listening relies on capricious long-term memory and yields contradictory opinions

Evidence

Single Stimulus Method. A common method of evaluating sound quality involves listening to a single loudspeaker type, in mono or stereo—“single stimulus”. In it the loudspeaker and room sounds are combined and constant during the evaluation; the program is variable. Such reviews might be better described as record reviews, not loudspeaker evaluations. In the absence of comparison loudspeakers, adaptation sets in, and “familiarity” may be the deciding factor in the opinion being formed. Listeners must rely on long-term acoustic memory of how the room and various recordings sound, and this is known to be capricious. This is the widely practiced “take it home and listen to it” method. Notable contradictions abound in the resulting opinions, partly because there are no comparison sounds available, and auditory memory is short. — Toole, Floyd E, Sound reproduction- the acoustics and…, 85

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the method-criticism thread in the soundscape/silence books about how measurement context shapes judgment — and to the Milgrom material on how evaluation depends on comparison information.
• SEED: Essay angle: why ‘take it home and listen’ reviews are structurally unreliable — comparison-free evaluation and the capriciousness of acoustic memory.