Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion HiFi & HT Chat A/B vs long term listening

[Akimo: This post originally appeared in a thread on MQA-first impressions. To keep that thread clean, I've moved my posts to this thread.]

Based on tests done in the 1980's, many folks (myself included) feel that A/B testing of music sources is not effective. The primary theory (first posited by Nelson Pass of Pass Labs) is that A/B testing forces the brain's analytical processes foremost, while music appreciation involves very different brain processes.

While this is not by any means 100% accepted in the audiophile world, I am strongly convinced it is true for me, based on over 35 years of evaluative listening:
- When I try to analyse the sound characteristics of a system, I lose all enjoyment
- When I listen for pleasure, I tend to internally generate descriptors that apply to the music, not the equipment

In the late 1970's or early 1980's, a group of senior writers for Stereophile tested the A/B process, and found that almost none of them could reliably tell the difference between substantially different kinds of equipment when using A/B processes. This kind of test was repeated elsewhere (AudioXpress) with similarly discouraging results.

Still controversial, but I'm a believer.