"4.Blind testing is bad? It isn't possible to pick out differences in components with proper blind testing?
Where did Aczel do his military service? In the Artillery?

Back when I spent a lot of time at Hollywood Sound we would frequently A/B amps, pre-amps and sources w/o knowing which was "live" at the time. Not all that scientific but migosh, if you couldn't hear the difference between an Adcom and a Counterpoint or Melos or Conrad-Johnson ......"

-Are these all solid state amps?
-are they level matched?
-is it a double blind test or r u given subconscious cues by the test giver, who knows which amps ar being switched (that would be a single blind test).

In a few of the articles in his back issues, Aczel describes the conditions for blind testing, and one of them is level matchng to 0.01 db. Apparently this is very difficult to do. He claims that once amps with similar levels of distortion, freq response and damping factor are used, in a level matched scenario (0.01 db +/-) you really cannot distinguish them in a double blind test, provided they are not overdriven.
I haven't personally tried that, but I find it intuitive to believe. In other words, I buy it.
Of course, I still use SET amps, becuase, as I have said many a time< I LIKE the distortion & weird freq curves they produce.
Makes music sound more "natural" to me.
-akhilesh