[LAU] ABX test (was Re: What is the best MP3 encoder?)

Ralf Mardorf ralf.mardorf at alice-dsl.net
Wed Apr 3 08:51:53 UTC 2013


On Wed, 2013-04-03 at 08:18 +0200, Raffaele Morelli wrote:
> 2013/4/3 Ralf Mardorf <ralf.mardorf at alice-dsl.net>:
> > I guess I _never_ failed a blind test, but that's not important. Most
> > people are comfortable with MP3s, but if I talk to them and point them
> > to the lossy parts, they're able to notice the loss too, they are
> > usually not annoyed by the loss.
> >
> > Tests with uneducated people are useless, those tests just should ensure
> > how far the industry could go.
> 
> This is just your personal and *uneducated* (ie. wrong) opinion.
> 
> ABX tests are double blind statistics tests, double blind tests are
> widely, massively used in medical statistics to test drug treatments
> against a disease (eg. tumor).
> 
> The goal is to ensure that treatment A is better than B, and "blind"
> stand for "the patient is not aware of the treatment he receives so
> variability is not conditioned from psychology" and morover the doctor
> is not aware of what the patient was given (the drug or a placebo).
> 
> What you call "uneducated" is the assupmtion which the test relies on.
> 
> Don't spread misconception.

I know what double blind tests are. The pharmaceutical industry are a
good example to prove that I'm not mistaken. My claim isn't that tests
are completely useless, it's just that especially for the pharmaceutical
industry and food mafia those tests are done in a way that it's clear,
what the result will be. But ok, we can claim that the earth is a disc
and centre of the universe and everything was made by a god and the
audio ABX tests are absolutely correct, MP3s not only sound lossless,
they improve the sound a lot. So lets spread this news and burn
everybody who doesn't believe in this :p.

It reminds me to that video where the guy is talking about "steps"
caused by AD conversion. Since the 80s when it was introduced to the
consumer marked this nonsense never stopped. When I was a teen I tried
to explain that it's nonsense to guess the wave converted back to analog
has got steps and I hoped that people will understand it after a while,
now more than 30 years later people still repeat that claim. It's
useless to discuss those things. As long as people pray to a god, eat at
McDonalds, fight "real" wars etc. pp. the human evolution does stagnate
and we will get one new technical invention after the other only, if
they are useful or not. I'm convinced that this will continue until our
economies will break down, at that point when exploitation is overdone.
It's not boring conspiration theory, it's that boring because it isn't a
concpiration theory.

I can't continue this discussion, I've to do some ABX tests to find out
what washing agent makes white clothes the most white and what motor oil
of the thinking motor oils has got the highest IQ. Just claim your motor
oil is able to think and people will believe it, comprehensible since
it's more present than a god, ghosts, souls etc. and people already
believe this nonsense.

Regards,
Ralf



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