Stereos of the Rich and Famous
the title, which is what caught my curiosity in the first place is quite misleading though...
am quoting something below....
"I've come to the conclusion that short term AB tests are pretty much worthless. I have one anecdotal story that illustrates this particularly well. A friend of mine and I compared his $4000 Audio Research preamp with my $400 Audible Illusions preamp for an afternoon, swapping the two in and out of his system. We both agreed that the differences were subtle, perhaps too subtle to justify the staggering difference in price. One summer, he left for England and lent me his SP-10. I listened to it for a whole summer and really enjoyed my stereo. When he came back and I replaced the SP-10 with my Audible Illusions preamp, my system suddenly sounded lifeless and I didn't enjoy it as much. This puzzled me because on the AB test we both agreed the differences were subtle, yet the long term pleasure somehow wasn't even close.
I shortly thereafter went out and bought an SP-11 (the newest model at the time, listing for about $5000). When my friend sent his SP-10 back to the factory to be blessed or retubed or something, he borrowed my Audible Illusions, thinking that it would tide him over. I hadn't told him how disappointing I found it after the SP-10. He called me up a few weeks later to say that he was confused and that his system wasn't giving him any pleasure, that he was hardly listening to it. How could it sound so lifeless when an AB test proved nearly inconclusive?
An interesting question is why we ever thought an A/B test was so great to begin with. After all, would you evaluate two performances of Beethoven's Waldstein sonata in 1-minute snippets? If there were a magic machine that could zap you into an Acura NSX or a Chevy Caprice for two minute intervals, would you test the cars that way or would you live with each one for a week? And what about mates? Have you ever had a perfectly pleasant date with a person only to discover that marriage to the very same person wasn't such a great idea? "
the title, which is what caught my curiosity in the first place is quite misleading though...
am quoting something below....
"I've come to the conclusion that short term AB tests are pretty much worthless. I have one anecdotal story that illustrates this particularly well. A friend of mine and I compared his $4000 Audio Research preamp with my $400 Audible Illusions preamp for an afternoon, swapping the two in and out of his system. We both agreed that the differences were subtle, perhaps too subtle to justify the staggering difference in price. One summer, he left for England and lent me his SP-10. I listened to it for a whole summer and really enjoyed my stereo. When he came back and I replaced the SP-10 with my Audible Illusions preamp, my system suddenly sounded lifeless and I didn't enjoy it as much. This puzzled me because on the AB test we both agreed the differences were subtle, yet the long term pleasure somehow wasn't even close.
I shortly thereafter went out and bought an SP-11 (the newest model at the time, listing for about $5000). When my friend sent his SP-10 back to the factory to be blessed or retubed or something, he borrowed my Audible Illusions, thinking that it would tide him over. I hadn't told him how disappointing I found it after the SP-10. He called me up a few weeks later to say that he was confused and that his system wasn't giving him any pleasure, that he was hardly listening to it. How could it sound so lifeless when an AB test proved nearly inconclusive?
An interesting question is why we ever thought an A/B test was so great to begin with. After all, would you evaluate two performances of Beethoven's Waldstein sonata in 1-minute snippets? If there were a magic machine that could zap you into an Acura NSX or a Chevy Caprice for two minute intervals, would you test the cars that way or would you live with each one for a week? And what about mates? Have you ever had a perfectly pleasant date with a person only to discover that marriage to the very same person wasn't such a great idea? "
