Blind testing is more difficult for audio since the following consideration must be made. first and foremost, louder is generally perceived as a better sound. I try and make experiments with SPL settings equal, measured at key points in the music. With gear like amps, decks, stages, wires and preamps, mostly sound level is the only concern and its not a tough adjustment. with speakers and cartridges its tougher because I find there is wider gap in efficiency's. buts still not too difficult. Lastly speakers need placement. they cant sit in the same place and be switched speedily. They also may sound their best in a different position. If this is the case then its great since they don't need to be in the same spot as another pair.

Anyway. DBT is great. Do it! the only people who fear it are people who have huge coin in equipment. maybe a vendor or two.

To further your test experiments. you should listen at greater lengths. come back the next day to what you thought was great. listen for a few day, to different formats of music. then switch back. and back again.

Don't forget some people just get tired of the way a system is voiced. then its all changed out and re-tuned. Are you sure its better? or just different, and you like it better now.

They would not be matched in volume at all frequencies. That's becuase different components have different frequency curves. Only if the frequency curve were so flat as to have negligible differences would thhey pretty much match.
Interestingly, most decently made solid state amplifiers and preamplifiers do have relatively flat frequency curves, with negligible difference.
Hence they DO sound alike. So your theory there is correct.
That is also what Aczel says, by the way.
It's common sense if you ask me...if two components measure alike, they will sound alike.

-akhilesh

HI Colin,
I agree with you there, Aczel does tend to be allergic to tube amps.
we have to understand that in the early 1990's tube amps were just coming out, and manufacturers were charging HUGE (thousands) dollars for these amps. there was then (surprise!) a lot of snake oil, as there is now too, but now we have a choice, and can get tube amps at a relatively cheapre price of only a few hundred dollars.

However, in one of the older issues, in the letters section, metasonix (he has posted here on ART too, and owns a company that makes guitar amps) tells him that tube amps are not just "tone controls" (non flat frequency curve) but also produce slight amounts of euphonous distortion, and many folsk, like guitar players for example, LOVE this tone of tube amps. Aczel agrees to that in the response to the ltter, and then moves on.

In my opinion, (and I pretty much use SET amps and tube amps in general), tube amps tend to make the music sound better to me.
But I would neve rkid myself that they have higher fidelity than solid state. IN some cases, they may actually "correct" the recording/mastering choices that may make purely reproduced material sound harsh or brittle, and actually make it sound better.

Just my 2 cents.
-akhilesh

There is a standard protocol, depending on the area (medicine, social science, etc).

It's really not hard at all to devise a rigorous, scientifically valid DBT test for audio component comparison. Take it from me.

Except it will probably kill most of the high end audio industry.
-akhilesh

Intersting to compare and contrast The Audio Critic with Sound Practices, which was published at roughly the same time - complete opposites in just about every respect...C

Thanks for recommending it to me!

-akhilesh