My educational background is close to the research he cites on human perception (i.e., I come from cognitive psychology). IMO you mostly misinterpreted this video, and PFS is more right than wrong. While I have no use for a lot of his stuff (e.g., cable analyses) and he can be a quack, this is indeed based on science. I half disagree with his selective attention interpretation (mid point of the video), and I generally disagree with his “unconscious bias” content near the end (to start, “unconscious” is often used to address “implicit” biases that are not unconscious at all).
- He says that [CORRECTION: rapid switching] overwhelms hearing given the complexity of music, and that music’s rapid changes from moment to moment make it hard to evaluate snippets. Correct.
- He emphasizes that the appreciation of content occurs over longer periods and as the brain forms interpretive structures (i.e., this changes with learning and remembering passages on the 2nd or 400th time listening to a given song. Consider every Zeppelin song that shifts from mild to overdrive). Yes.
- Habituation – if meant as having a functional memory for system performance no matter what sounds come out next – varies by the distinctiveness of content and exposure to the range of possible interacting states of all elements (i.e., sources, DAC, amp, drivers). This is commonly known as “synergy.” A full appreciation of a system’s potential can indeed require hours or days rather than 10 minutes. Easily.
I developed my functional strategy for system evaluation years ago, as shown in my fatigue-oriented playlist. With this playlist I suffer to determine what setup will work for me in real-world listening, as likely pleasant or a dead-end. This method cannot be blind, but I find it to be highly reliable.
In brief, I listen to a variety of genres for 3 hours and some of these are heavily distorted or bad quality sources. The distortion and quality get worse over time. My measure is tinnitus and general auditory fatigue (e.g., losing a sense of resolution, discomfort). A bad setup makes my ears ring in seconds, even with mild female vocals. An excellent setup will make it to 2.5 or even 3 hours. Various drivers, amps, or DACs have reliable “pain points” at specific times and with specific tracks.
There is no faking pain and tinnitus. Developing a clear appreciation of other musical properties can require as much time and source variety too.
Same here. PFS means well, but he tends to wander off.
No. It gets at his overall point: blind AB tests, as necessarily short and inherently at odds with more complex perceptions, are worthless. Yes, yes they are worthless. One example is what happens to your eyes when you walk from a snow covered yard into dark room and vice versa. Your optic sensors require a good amount of chemical time to adjust. You’ll be functionally blind for a few seconds going either way. Such is life as a biological, electro-chemical animal.
I find PFS to be a waste of time more often than not, but this one was okay.
See above. IMO you interpreted this video incorrectly.
Nope, he’s talking about real science on why blind testing doesn’t work well. He is correct on the whole.