kaepplein@amber.DEC (09/14/85)
RE: CD double blind testing... Originally, I wrote a paragraph about how I owned the player for 3 weeks and had become bored with it and how much distaste I had for schmaltzy crescendos in Flynn and the BBs, but wanted a tighter posting. So now I will go into it. The sound was uninvolving and the thrill was gone. Good reproduction isn't that way. Flynn's crescendos, I discovered offended my ears more than my taste. I'm sorry, but I don't think that double blind testing is an absolute requirement. After living with a piece of gear or a pair of pants you know them and can recognize them. The DC filtering cap change was so dramatic that I knew there was a big improvement even with 15 minutes elapsed between listenings. I must admit that the subsequent changes that I made I was not very sure if it was any better. Theory dictated that it would be, but I did wish for a second machine to compare with. If anyone has any doubts about the low price of the Magnavox/Sylvania players, the FD1040 is called the Phillips 104 in England and sells for #280 or $370 (1.32 rate on Thursday). An unprecedented bargain for a machine that is made in the common market (Belguim). This is a quality machine and noone should feel bad about not paying a lot of money for it. I'm going to post pointers to the two companies mentioned because I'm inundated with requests: The Mod Squad Musical Concepts 542 Coast Highway 101 1060 Fifth Plaza Leucadia, CA 92024 Florissant, MO 63031 619-436-7666 314-831-1822 These and many other interesting places frequently advertise in the back of Audio magazine (a CBS publication). I've continued to make some minor changes. I did replace some of the surface mount resistors with metal films, and I put a film cap where the DC blocking cap originally was. I can't say if these made much difference. These type changes, called POOGEing in the Audio Amateur, would also improve "hifi" VCRs, laser disk players, and stereo TVs - future projects for me. Mark Kaepplein Kaepplein%amber.dec@decwrl Kaepplein@dec.arpa
ark@alice.UucP (Andrew Koenig) (09/15/85)
> I'm sorry, but I don't think that double blind testing is an absolute > requirement. After living with a piece of gear or a pair of pants you know > them and can recognize them. The DC filtering cap change was so dramatic > that I knew there was a big improvement even with 15 minutes elapsed between > listenings. I must admit that the subsequent changes that I made I was not > very sure if it was any better. Theory dictated that it would be, but I > did wish for a second machine to compare with. Yes, you know there was a big change, but you also knew to expect a change. The placebo effect is *very* powerful. I have seen several product reviews recently in which the reviewer said something like "This amplifier had a sweeter high end than our reference amp, but we were unable to substantiate this perception during double-blind testing."