Hi @Innocent_Bystander I hope you are about to have a good weekend.
Your original posting to which I am replying raised an interesting point. That of ‘Blind Testing’.
I can imagine that there are many people in the world who do not appreciate the significance of using appropriate test procedures when evaluating human subjective opinion.
Full Disclosure: I am not one of those people. However I had never personally had a need to implement such procedures in my home… until LAST YEAR (AUGUST 2024).
Without going into too much detail, it came about that I needed to gather data on users experience of (different settings of) Linn Space Optimisation being applied to music experienced in my media room (which had lots of room treatement already fitted).
Here are the Key Elements of Test Procedure:
a). Tests conducted using six participants (2 females, 4 males).
b). Each participant had a dedicated and independent (of other participants) listening session.
c). Each participant selected their own short piece of familiar music (4 – 5 minutes long).
d). The selected music genres included blues, classic orchestral, jazz/folk, Latin, opera and rock.
e). Participants were not informed of the (three) different Optimisation settings used.
f). Each session had a 20 minute ‘settling in’ period where the Optimisation setting was ‘random’.
g). The subsequent active evaluation period (~15 mins total) exposed the listener to their selected short piece of music played three times sequentially (once for each Optimisation setting). (see special note below)
h). The listener ranked the ‘playing/sounds’ (c.f. Space Optimisation settings) in order of preference.
Note: The order in which the three optimisation settings were played was randomised amongst the six participant sessions with the intention of eliminating any potential bias introduced through the order of listening.
To introduce the participant to their session, there was a verbal introduction (that I read from a script) and then the participant was handed the following form to note their experiences.
Note: I was not in the room as the evaluation was taking place.
Perhaps you (or any other reader of this thread) can comment on any weaknesses in the test method I used?
FYI the trial was sucessful as the results were incorporated into a technical report for the recipient company, and useful knowledge came out for both parties (i.e. me and the company).
PPS: Perhaps , depending on the level of interest in this posting, I will share the results of the trial and perhaps stimulate a discussion on the subject of ‘statistical significance’?
All the best
E of E