First a little background on this subject. I am not an expert on blind testing so take everything below for what it's worth. But as I see it, people who believe in the benefits of blind testing audio equipment basically say that if you can't hear the difference in a double blind test then you're only fooling yourself. There is no difference. The people against using blind testing have a host of reasons why they aren't accurate. Such as length of time, unfamiliar equipment and rooms etc. etc. They believe there are audible differences in say cables etc that are masked by the blind test procedure.

Thinking on this subject I realized that I have never read about a blind test procedure where proven differences were heard with audio components. In other words, let's take a component in the audio chain where almost everyone will agree there are sonic differences such as speakers or cartridges. I don't know of anyone who would argue that there are no audible differences between different brands of speakers. So lets use them for starters. One would assume that just about anyone could tell the difference very close to 100% of the time, in a blind test, between a full range floor standing speaker and a mini monitor. But before we assume, I would like to see it done. If that assumption turns out to be correct then let's try two different speakers with similar bass responses. I think this would be considerably more difficult. But again you would "assume" that most people would be able to tell the difference almost 100% of the time between these speakers as well. Then drop down to testing preamps, amplifiers etc.

My point is this, Having the bench marks created using the tests above, we could then move on to more difficult to hear components such as cables etc. In other words if people had trouble telling apart even speakers, cartridges and preamps using blind testing, this would help prove the point of view that the tests are not an accurate way of showing audible differences. If the above tests show that people can consistently hear differences between speakers, cartridges and even amps and preamp, then this would be a mark for the double blind testers. But instead of assuming people can hear gross differences from components such as speakers I would like to see it done first.

Maybe I'm wrong. Can someone show me a double blind test using audio components of any kind that shows a consistent verifiable difference was heard by a number of people.

Just food for thought.