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Originally Posted by cotdt  that's the problem with hydrogen audio. they advocate blind testing (which I do as well), but they do not understand how to interpret blind tests.
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I disagree, for the reasons stated below. (note: I've rearranged the order of your quotes to facilitate the flow of my response. It's not my intention to change anything that you've said.)
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| it will tell you that the two systems are different, but nothing beyond that. |
Exactly right.
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| how the heck is blind testing supposed to support subjective listening, like one system being "warmer" or "clearer" than another? |
It isn't supposed to do that, and H.A. does not suggest that it is. The point of H.A.'s TOS #8 is simply to establish that the listener can hear a difference before accepting subjective impressions of that difference. The blind test, by itself, does not purport to allow the characterization of one system as "warmer" or "clearer" or anything else. It simply shows that there is a difference. Once you establish that, you are perfectly welcome to describe that difference in subjective terms.
If you want an example, look at the way that Hydrogen Audio conducts listening tests where they compare codecs. To participate in the listening test, you need to successfully ABX the codecs that you are comparing; once you do that, you rank the codecs. The actual comparison is purely subjective, and the reported results usually include both a subjective ranking (usually on a scale of 1 to 5, if I remember correctly) as well as a space for purely subjective comments about how the codec sounds.
