Re proving or unproving things via blind tests,
As said before, blind tests don't convince anybody these days--among other reasons stated above I'd like to add, that to properly conduct a blind test in a way that removes confounding telltales from the equation, often requires control methodologies that "the other side" will not accept. For example, if the DACs have a timing as well as volume difference, then fast switching between them would not work unless you run the signals through something like VSTHost with a delay plugin on one side, which would immediately make the blood boil in audio purists
I think we need a more convincing demonstration that more people can accept. E.g. we could have a demo black-box system driving a HD800, that sounds "smoother", "more detailed yet less fatiguiing", etc. than any source/DAC/amp system the audiophile cares to throw at it. Then we open the black box to show a bog-standard smartphone running a custom HD800 correction profile on Viper4Android or something.
Take a big well known DAC case, put a Modi inside along with a mini DSP in it to manipulate the sound however you want. That could be interesting, too
For a little while, going back at least a few months now I guess, I've been talking to another member here (
@landroni) about building a proper tool to more easily/reliably facilitate blind and ABX testing for source components. While there are certainly tools that enable such things today, they are generally software-side solutions, which aren't very useful if the source you want to compare isn't a computer-based player and, in the case of the most readily available, it's a Windows-centric thing.
It also typically forces you to have USB somewhere in the audio chain as most computers don't have any other way to talk to a DAC.
That tool does a few of things.
First it's a distribution point ... feed it a digital input and it'll give you two outputs of the same signal, allowing you to connect to two digital devices at once and have them playing in synchronization form the source. It allows you to adjust timing between delivery to those two sources to permit overcoming any latency from internal buffering/re-clocking schemes as needed. You don't have to use this stage ... you can just use the analog inputs (see next point) instead if you prefer.
Second, it takes two stereo analog inputs, provides a push-button way to automatically level-match them to within 0.1 dB (quite a lot better than you'll manage by ear and beyond the realistic capability of many SPL meters), and then provides a single, switched, output to an amplifier.
Third, it provides for a couple of comparison modes, with a simple control to allow the user to indicate when they hear a difference.
One mode simply repeats a selectable passage of music ... you mark a start and end point, which it stores in an internal buffer, and then it'll repeatedly play that while switching sources. The other simply passes through whatever is coming from the source and switches sources randomly there. This allow you see if differences are detectable in-stream or between repeated passages. Then there's an option to mute between switches or make the changeover seamless*.
It logs what source playing when, and records when the user indicates they detect a difference, and then gives you the data so you can analyze it from there.
Switching is driven by a proper
hardware random number generator rather than a pseudo-random software one (e.g. Mersenne Twister), and within certain constraints you can substitute a different device there (which comes from me not having settled on which RNG I wanted to use when I first got things running).
*There's a bit more work to do before it's finished, in particular the seamless switching needs tweaking, but once it's done there's a good chance I'll throw the thing up on some crowd-funding site and then have as many built as there is concrete interest in. And then I may open-source the design and code, depending on how much work it ultimately takes to get it from being a tool for me vs. something others can easily use.
