I disagree but it's all good... I feel long sessions is the only way to go. I just don't feel short sessions are meaningful. I do agree it's hard to eliminate all the variables but we can try and do our best. What do you think about any of those links or comments from that other forum? anything of value there? I can't get biggie to come back and contribute and I need your guys knowledge since they do some tech talk. Seems like some good stuff to discuss no?
I'm rereading your post since there' alot of info there......I'll get back if I can pick up on anything to discuss. ....but in the meantime, any feelings on those links? are those guys off base?
just to be clear, when i did my 'testing' i was using two sansa players . the same kind same model etc. just diff color. I agree the color could be a problem but you think they have different processing methods or speeds? I'm not quite following that idea but I guess it's possible, I don't know anything about it or how it works, I just assume two sansa DAPs are the same....,maybe not
I didn't answer because the first link gives me nothing, and the 2 others... well I am familiar with micheal lavorgna and cookie marenco and others, what they have in common is that they try to bury blind testing deep down while pretending like they have anything better. my personal opinion is that his blog is a useless waste of time. and I'll let someone much better than myself to explain why I have that opinion of anybody trying to kill blind testing:
http://seanolive.blogspot.fr/2009/04/dishonesty-of-sighted-audio-product.html
and that also explains why I'm so adamant in general against headfi's TOS against talking blind testing outside of sound science.
about the sansa DAPs, it was just one possibility, I do not think that 2 sansas of the same model will sound much different(in fact in my experience, even telling apart a clip from a clip+ from a zip was not an easy job at all and I ended up getting only clip+ because they are cheaper and smaller. only the buzzing noise from the buffering would give away some models or if they had rockbox or not. but until it's verified, a possible difference shouldn't be dismissed. that's the problem with trying to do things right, everything becomes so much more complicated ^_^.
it's just that 2 electronic devices will have some minor measurable differences from no component being strictly the same as the next one. so making the assumption that they sound the same, while at the same time making the opposite assumption that 2 bit perfect formats are different. it doesn't stand right for me from a pure logic standpoint.
Should we all listen to 3-5 second bursts of noise to test all audio. I mean listen to the whole range of headphones in a shop for 3 seconds each and then conclude 'that's the one for me-take my money sir'
Life's decisions now made way. The same technique could be use for cars etc. The 3 sec test drive. Even blind dates.
we're obviously not saying that at all. you can go back and forth as much as you want and as long as you feel necessary to make sure you heard a difference. and anyway that is the best method to find out if there is an audible difference. nobody ever said it was the best way to pick a format. we try to tell if flac sounds different, well the best way to do that is short portions of music and rapid switching. it's just using the proper tool for the task.
if the question was something else we would use another more adapted method.
when trying headphones you're not trying to find out if there is a difference. you're trying to find out which one you prefer and that a very different question. for most headphones just with the FR we know for a fact and audibly so that they do sound different. so obviously a method testing if there is an audible difference would be a waste of time.
and your last sentence is a strawman argument mate. we're talking about how our brain deals with audio, not how we deal with car or blind dates.