If there ever was a post that demonstrated why I will never allow my equipment get involved in a shoot-out, this is it.

The basic premise of the post is that since DBT's don't produce the expected results, the the TESTs are in error. Everyone knows that tubes sound better than SS, vinyl better than CD's, silver wire better than copper, etc.

DBT's are designed to identify differences between systems, not to assign rankings. If the tests you were involved in demonstrated "A" was better than "B", then the tests were flawed. Rankings are subjective and cannot be tested. Sure, some equipment will be universally agreed to be poor, or good, whatever, but this is NOT the result of a DBT test.

You like tubes and vinyl. Maybe I don't. Therefore, either my ears are flawed, I am a fool or both. Or perhaps my program material is different from yours and might need different reproduction equipment? Maybe I just don't like the fat sound of small SET's?

It has been suggested that at the next GPAF we arrange a shoot-out between Wayne's speakers and mine and whoever else wants to participate. Not going to happen. Do our speakers sound different? Sure. Do we need A-B testing to prove so. I don't think so. Our design philosophies are very different and our target audience is very different. If you were at the last GPAF, you would have seen that some folks gravitated to my suite and some gravitated to Wayne's suite. Different folks. Different ears. And this is the way it will always be with audio equipment.

Bob