[LAD] Re: Direct Stream Digital / Pulse Density Modulation musing/questions

[Bearcat M. Sandor]

On Tuesday 25 September 2007 in an email titled "Re: [LAD] Re: Direct Stream 
Digital / Pulse Density Modulation musing/questions" Fons Adriaensen wrote:

>If you have ever been involved in organising a controlled listening
>test you should know how easy it is to get completely invalid results
>and to fool yourself into believing things that are just an illusion.

When i went down my local (ok, only) studio to have some LPs transferred to CD 
the studio owner and i were talking about this very subject.  He told me that 
one day he bought a new mixer to replace his aging one.  He set it next to 
his old one and got it ready. The phone rang. He spent the next few hours 
experimenting with it, and was happy with the differences it made in the 
sound he was trying to achieve.  However, he had forgotten to turn it on.

I'm sure this isn't the only such story out there. If a person can fool 
themselves into believing that such a piece of equipment is even functioning, 
how much difference can it make?  As a matter of fact, i think he returned 
the mixer and stuck with his old one.

Bearcat M. Sandor, music lover/audiophile