"Eric Stevens" wrote in message
...
it also applies to more than just audio.

there was a double-blind test with wine, where expert wine tasters
couldn't identify the cheap wines from the expensive ones, including
when one of the 'red wines' was white wine + food colouring.

LOL. It takes guts to perpetrate that sort of test on a wine buff. And they
got away with it :-)

If we accept your argument then double-blind tests are a waste of time
under any circumstances we are discussing with you.

In fact, and for example, practically nobody could fail to detect the
difference between my PC speakers and the Arcam DAC feeding the Quad
amplifier and Z4 speakers with their ribbon tweeters. The difference
between the two DACs is not as great but it is quite audible.

I read of an interesting study that was done comparing vinyl against CD.
Audiophiles could tell that difference, which doesn't surprise me. Many of
them preferred the "vinyl sound". Fair enough.

But then they introduced a third factor: live sound (eg a radio broadcast of
a concert) with no recording, whether on tape, vinyl or CD. And the
audiophiles thought it was a CD, and hated it. So what some audiophiles
prefer is the modifications that are made to "fit" the recording onto vinyl:
the reduced dynamic range and the modified frequency response when writing
to disc and converse process when playing back - that other forms of
recording are too faithful and less "warm".