Why is Double Blind Testing Controversial?

To answer the original question, DBT is controversial because there are widely divergent views of its accuracy and applicability. One group of people feels that DBTs as a test methodology are inherently incapable of demonstrating audible differences. Another group feels the opposite. A fertile topic for discussion, in my opinion.

The rancor comes, unfortunately, when fringes on one side or the other feel the need to characterize those with whom they disagree as either "meter readers with no hearing/bad systems/no experience/etc." or as "delusional and indulging in wastful fantasy". Neither is correct (well, not in most cases), nor productive to meaningful discussion of the subject at hand.

Why some feel that this particular topic - why the controversy over DBTs - is unsuitable for discussion mystifies me. Well, not really . . .

Very well stated Hearhere.

All this talk of DBT, could anyone provide a link to any such reputable, controlled testing done in audio, including the statistical manipulations used to obtain the conclusions, so we at least know what we are arguing here? Anyone care to philosophize on the great fallibility of science in general, or even specifically on the science and statistics involved in any such testing? Alan Chalmers, anyone?

Hearhere, cool user name.

Socrates: You've asked a mouthful of questions. I'd suggest you start out with this site: www.pcabx.com, where you can download software that will allow you to conduct your own DBTs.

I don't want to get into statistics, except to say that's usually not the weak link in a DBT. As for the "fallibility of science," that's not the way I'd put it. I'd say that science is never finished, and it can always discover somethng new, or that something once "proven" to be right is in fact wrong. Science, in short, is the best explanation we have right now for whatever phenomenon we wish to explain. But you can't just wish it away. Current knowledge stands as knowledge--as fact--until somebody comes along with new knowledge that refutes it.

That said, anyone--and I mean anyone--who does serious research on either human hearing or sound reproduction uses DBTs--and ONLY DBTs. No one in the scientific community would think of doing a listening test any other way, because such tests are absolutely necessary to isolate and compare only the sound.