scientific double blinded cable test

Have you actually confirmed this by conducting a double-blind test? If so, please tell us how you conducted the test. Or ... are you just speculating?

Cleeds, I’m using Belden 5T00UP. It’s been tried both ways/direction. There is no difference without a blind test, so there is no need for me to try it blind. Unrelated to wire but related to blind testing, I have conducted a blind test where my DAC is concerned.

Also, my challenge (undefined but can be worked out) is open to you too.

smikell

SO, please explain how your cable directional. If my explanation doesn’t convince you, try making a little test board to put between your amp and your speaker. Just put a simple diode in line with the signal you believe to be directional. That will force your signal to be directional......

Oh, I don’t recommend it, cause I don’t know what a series of positive only electrical pulses will do to your speakers..... I suspect it will be nothing but bad.........
But then, I’m only a degreed engineer from a podunk school like GaTech, who spent his entire career building electronics and if you ever heard me sing, I have a tin ear.
As I used to tell my management, knowing is much better than thinking, but stop thinking, cause you’re not qualified.

>>>>You convinced me. Cables are not directional. I will email all the High End cable and fuse companies to advise them to please stop scamming naive gullible audiophiles by using those deceptive arrows on all their cables and power cords ASAP. I will also notify the thousands of happy customers who actually can hear wire and cable directionality. 🙄

gdha

There is no difference without a blind test, so there is no need for me to try it blind

You’re not making any sense. Blind test advocates such as yourself claim that sighted tests are unreliable. Yet you now seek special exception from being subjected to the rigors of blind/scientific testing, based upon your special privileged use of the same methodology you claim is unreliable when cited by others. That is an extreme example of expectation bias and illogic.

Also, my challenge (undefined but can be worked out) is open to you too

I have a passing interest in double-blind testing, even though I think it has little value to audiophiles and is mostly a waste of my time. But I’m not interested in gambling, and your efforts to turn your challenge into wagering is what I suspect led the moderators to delete your posts.

Scientific.  Double blind. Sounds best.  Im keen to know how to conduct and quantify scientifically what sounds best to my ears and ears/ brain of other subjects in this double blind test.  Am I to insert electrodes in the brain or cerebral circulation to measure an electrical or neurotransmitter response ?   Assuming the brief is to ascertain what sounds best using what sounds best to the subjects ears/brains is no problem. Provided you trust my findings.  I have tried the latter and found beyond doubt that cables do impart a different sound coming out the speakers into human ears to the brain of subjects familiar with our hobby.  All conditions in the experiment were the same. Only cables were changed.  Also can confirm that cables have direction bias.  

Blind test advocates such as yourself claim that sighted tests are unreliable.

I'm not advocating for anything. So please, lets clear the air.

Cleeds, I think there is some confusion or misunderstanding in general (i.e. not just you) throughout the thread with regard to my posts herein the thread.


What I'm stating (and by extension offering in the way of a challenge), is that in cases where a person claims to be able to audibly hear a difference when ordinary speaker wire is reversed, the person who is making that claim would NOT reliably audibly hear a difference if said speaker wire were reversed WITHOUT his/her prior knowledge to whether or not the wire was actually reversed.

As an EXAMPLE ONLY, the person making such claim that he/she can RELIABLY audibly hear a difference when/if reversing a cable should receive a passing grade when subjected to the following EXAMPLE PROCEDURE.

(1) The person subject to the test cannot see the equipment, but can hear (unobstructed) sound from it.

(2) A musical passage is played. In our example, lets play the Grateful Dead "Deal" (but we just as well could play the star spangled banner) from start to finish (or a few seconds or a few minutes, whatever).

(3) When Deal finishes, the person subject to the test waits approximately two minutes. The person is waiting for Deal (or the star spangled banner) to resume (play again from the beginning).

(4) During the wait, "another person or persons" would reverse, OR NOT reverse, the wire. In this context, reversing the wire means removing the wire (each channel of a two channel system, one channel at a time) from the speaker and the amplifier. Then, taking the ends of the cable that were on the speaker and attaching the ends to the amplifier, maintaining correct polarity, and repeating for the other channel. The speaker wire ends that were on the amplifier are connected to the speaker.

(5) The other person or persons in this EXAMPLE ONY is a known trusted source, who is/are the only person or persons to record whether or not the wire WAS OR WAS NOT reversed.

(6) The music resumes. The person subjected to the test listens until he/she is comfortable (upon completion or during the playback) in stating, "yes, the speaker wire has been reversed" or "no, the speaker wire has not been reversed". The person subjected to the test must make one or the other declaration within a specified amount of time.

(7) The person or persons other than the one subjected to the test records the response and compares the response to WHAT THEY ACTUALLY DID OR DID NOT DO with the speaker wire. Their recording indicates a "pass" or "fail" grade, attributed to the person subjected to the test.

(8) The aformentioned EXAMPLE ONLY procedure is repeated a number of times so that there is a VERY HIGH CONFIDENCE level that the person subjected to the test, passes or fails. For EXAMPLE, the test might be conducted 30 times, in which case Deal (or the star spangled banner) would have played 60 times. So the person subjected to the test (and who purportedly can audible hear a difference as to whether or not the wire has been reversed), would be expected to make the correct response (items 6 and 7) the overwhelming majority of the time (25?).

(9) Of the 30 EXAMPLE ONLY tests, the person or persons who have subjected the person who has listened compares the reponses to the agreed upon majority (25) and on that basis declares "yes, you can reliably detect whether or not ordinary speaker wire is reversed" or "no, you cannot reliably detect whether or not ordinary speaker wire is reversed".


Simple really, for those who purportedly can hear the difference.