A GUIDE FOR THE DEDICATED ANALOG AUDIOPHILE
My Two Cents
I made a couple of quick notes and sent them by email to Robert, as follows:
- One record is not enough for this test, or any other for that matter, and
- Tests need to be blinded.
Without blinding all you are doing is confirming your prejudices, which is something you correctly point out in your piece, and no matter how much you want to think you aren’t doing that because you are trying so hard to guard against it, it is almost surely what you will end up doing.
Confirmation bias is at the heart of most mistaken audio judgments, something I learned a very long time ago, and only after making every kind of mistake there is to make, over the course of decades no less. Only one thing had the power to set me on the right path, and without it I would never have learned how to make any real progress in audio, or find better sounding records for that matter.
If you don’t know how to run good experiments, how can you be sure your results are of any value?
I discussed testing in a previous post of Robert’s: Why Does “Why” Matter in Analog?
Someone mentioned a blindfold test, and I was glad to hear it as blind testing is something I have been recommending for years.
I did a shootout for the 45 RPM pressings of Rumours in front of a world famous record collector, and it was obvious to me, if not to everyone, that none of the three copies sounded exactly the same as the others, yet they were brand new and pressed on audiophile vinyl in limited numbers.
I have an audio friend who asked me to do the same — be blindfolded — to judge some changes he had made to his stereo, and I agreed.
Afterwards he told me that none of his other audio friends would allow themselves to be blindfolded.
Having spent my life around other audiophiles, this is something I have no trouble believing!
I’m sure Robert would, because Robert knows how easy it is to be fooled, and to fool yourself.
For that very reason. all of our record shootouts are blinded. No other method would be reliable and reproducible.
Thanks for the great piece, glad you took the time to write and research it.
It probably won’t change any minds. Minds are hard to change, and those who offer simplistic explanations for complex psychological tropes have minds that are impossible to change, if my admittedly limited experience is anything to go by.
Best, TP
Robert’s Approach
Robert has methodically and carefully — one might even say scientifically — approached the various problems he’s encountered in this hobby by doing the following:
- Improving his equipment,
- Teaching himself how to do a better job of dialing in his turntable setup.
- Learning how to do controlled shootouts for his favorite albums, and, most importantly of all:
- Carefully testing every aspect of audio and records empirically, using his ears — and nothing else — to guide him.
- Sometimes Robert has an interesting take on some aspect of records or audio which we have found consistently worth reading and recommend highly.
