In this debate, something that bothers me somewhat, it's the use of the word "placebo" when dealing with audio perceptions that can't be measured or proven.
The placebo effect originally refers to a phenomenon that is, actually, measurable and provable. A patient takes a pill that is supposed to have no effect, but gets better nonetheless. The improvement is measurable (regression of symptoms - like fever, for instance) and sometimes -actually rather often- the "false" pill does better than the real one.
To me "placebo" is a term that doesn't fit these audio illusions, since they can't be measured. They're not real... the original placebo effect, on the other hand, causes real, actual, measurable improvements in the patient.
What we're dealing with in audio is, in my view much closer to hallucinations, where the brain creates "logical" patterns causing the senses to see, feel, taste or hear things that aren't actually there (at least not in the form we think we sense them). More close to optical illusions, as well. They have been discussed here btw, its a great way to remind people that we should NOT trust our senses, because our senses play tricks on us all the time.
Just curious, has anyone here already played a game that I love, which is to concentrate (kind of) on audio noise (pink noise for instance) until actually hearing in it voices, melodies, chords, even a full orchestra? I do that often when taking a shower. It's fun, and rather easy if you have a bit of imagination. I know other people, musicians or not, who play that game too. Sometimes, the illusion can even get pretty uncanny! It's a bit like looking at video noise (like we could with old TV programs...) and seing movement in it. We sure see these things ven though they aren't there per se.
http://www.stereophile.com/content/2013-recommended-components
