[linux-audio-user] Re: Digital Fidelity

[Carlo Capocasa]

Hi Paul!

Thank you for blatantly ignoring my irrevent comments! I appreciate a
man with a sense of humor.

Aaahhh... that was a good one! :)

Well, as for neglection... I probably phrased it extremely poorly. As
you have so adequately phrased, it appears that double blind tests are
simply an excellent method for removing placebo effect from tests. I
didn't know that was the intent, and now I do. Great!

So... my whole point is, that this whole double blind thing is getting
out have hand. It's being treated like a holy grail, completely losing
track of the original intent. I can already see the old sea-dog on is
ship screaming "George! Throw a few double-blinds in to... Uh... Do
something!" and George waddles off and hoists the sail simply because he
knows this will calm the ship because he knows the old man simply wants
to sleep.

What I'm getting at here is, a double blind test is like a good
screwdriver bought in a quality hardware store. My question is: Are we
trying to screw a screw, or pound a nail? We are talking about listening
to MUSIC, for chrissake. Music's romantic. Music's emotional. And I'm
going to dedicate a friggin' SONG to Maluvia on why she has to be
represented to me by a bunch of ASCII characters. People get married
because they heard the same song together. Teenagers weep and wail and
spend all their pocket money on a guy goin so ooh ooh smoothey-moo in
his Mike. And is it a Behringer or an APG? Which brand of ship's engine
did the Titanic have? Did you see the typical reed-nautical mast right
behind Leonardo sinking in the icy water? Too bad it's covered up by
Kate Winslet's hand waving Bye Bye.

What I'm actually getting at here is: Double blind tests eliminate
placebo from research. Fine. But it also eliminates all the placebo that
is part of our everyday lives. Listen in to your average Teen Idol. He
wouldn't be all that much, but he's LEONARDO. LEONARDO!!! ALL MY FRIENDS
like Leonardo. How's that for placebo?

So much depends on placebo and we're ELIMINATING it? Have we gone stick
staring MAD?

Carlo