James Randi vs. Anjou Pear - once and for all

Mr. Randi's challenge reminds me of when people claimed you can't tell one beer from another when tasting them blindfolded. Some can, some can't.

He'll admit $50/meter Monster Cable sounds better than $1.50/meter Home Depot zip wire, yet many folks would say you're insane to pay $50 for a piece of wire.

So is his argument you can't hear a difference between any cable or you just can't hear a $7500 difference? If it's the first, then he's just dead-flat wrong. Otherwise, there wouldn't be a Monster Cable or a Cardas or a Pear Audio. If it's the second than he's simply questioning a company's justification for its profit margin. And that's none of his business. If I'm rich and stoopid enough to pay $7500 for some fancy wire because I I think it will help me reach audio nirvana, than that validates companies like Pear who cater to my (foolish) whimsy.

All said and done, it's a mix of reality and placebo effect. You can hear a difference between $50 cable and $7500 cable, partially because you want to. As Mr. Randi knows, perception can determine reality.

Oddly, my attempt to post something very similar about Mr. Randi's offer yesterday got nixed by the site management. What gives?

Meagan02 - your answer doesn't answer the question of why someone won't step up and win the million dollars. I just did a listening test last night with a couple of buddies - Purist speaker cables (Elementa Advance, not their priciest) against a couple cheaper mail order cables (no need to mention, they are decent cables). Everyone in the room felt that the Purist cables represented a significant improvement (all 3 of us). On a resolving system, this should be quite differentiable. What are the rules of his challenge? Who is the jury. A million bucks can buy a lot of audio equipment, and the contestant doesn't risk anything besides their time (is this true?). So, somebody with time - step up!!!

I feel that it would depend a lot upon the system used in the test and who decided. I know that in my system, different cables are easily distinguished, even by a nay sayer engineer (price does not dictate quality). However, if it were in a system built around a midrange cd player and tri-amplified self-powered loudspeakers, one may not be able to. IMHO of course.

Peter s,

It's not my place, nor yours, to answer the question why someone won't step up and take the challenge. Actually, that's not even the question. Randi is baiting Dave Clark and John Atkinson, not you or me, or any A-Gon member. We've got nothing to lose. And on the 50/50 outside chance we could actually tell the Monster Cable from the Pear Audio...who freaking cares? Randi just wants to embarrass these two hotshots, not schmoes like us. Wisely, these guys aren't going to risk their reputation--and careers--to let Randi make saps out of them.

But feel free to call him and try to win the $1,000,000.