As usual, a well-set up blind A/B test of supposedly stupendous audio equipment. And as usual, the actual answer (from ridiculously famous sound engineer Alan Parsons, whose own band has been more than slightly an audiophile focus) is “fix the room first.”
The interesting thing is the excuses for why science, logic and joined-up thinking don’t work when someone is making a factual claim like “superior audio reproduction.” In this case, subjects claimed the A/B/X switch being present affected the sound, even though the test also showed this couldn’t possibly be true. The testers indulged the subjects by swapping entire cables by hand rather than using A/B/X, but frankly when they reach that stage of homeopathic balderdash, “bugger off” is the right answer.
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