Am I the only person who hates blind tests?

[crispsandwich]

It makes me unreasomably angry when I go to watch an A/B video and the creator does the whole infantilising "Now, here is a blind test" speech. I hate it. Just show me which is fucking which!

 

[Alex Kenivel]

Don't be so unreasomable!

 

[Orvillain]

No. I like them. I like being surprised by my own preconcieved notions and how wrong they can be.

 

[crispsandwich]

No. I like them. I like being surprised by my own preconcieved notions and how wrong they can be.

Fair enough. I figured that I am in the minority tbh .

 

[Orvillain]

Fair enough. I figured that I am in the minority tbh .

I bet you don't even actually like crisp sandwiches do ya?!

 

[laxu]

I don't like the "wait until next video for the reveal" followups.

 

[crispsandwich]

I bet you don't even actually like crisp sandwiches do ya?!

No, I do. They are excellent. White bread, obviously. Buttered, obviously.

 

[Orvillain]

No, I do. They are excellent. White bread, obviously. Buttered, obviously.

I mean, obviously!!!

I'm going to eat a crisp sandwich for lunch today, in your honour sir.

 

[Cirrus]

My left brain likes them. My right brain knows they're pointless.

 

[Orvillain]

My left brain likes them. My right brain knows they're pointless.

Crisp sarnies??

 

[James Freeman]

I like blind tests in forum posts where you can play the sample and click the "reveal" button and see the results.

On youtube? Nah that's clickbait shit that can fof pronto.

 

[2dor]

I like blind tests but only when I have the guitar in my hands.

 

[MirrorProfiles]

Necessary evil.

I can’t say I find them that entertaining at all, but sometimes the results are surprising when bias is removed. Our brains kind of suck at being objective. And I do enjoy hearing other people’s perception of the same sounds, it focuses me to hear things in other ways. They’ve certainly helped me to learn a lot about dialing in amps, and guitar tones, and helped me discover what actually causes differences.

I tend to share them partly because having feedback from a larger pool of people is interesting, and also partly because there seems to be people interested in hearing things compared. Aside from that, it’s dull AF.

 

[FuzzyAce]

My left brain likes them. My right brain knows they're pointless.

Same.
Comparison vids can be interesting, kind of like @MirrorProfiles preamp shootout, and at least he tells you which is which.
The thing is, any one of them could be used "successfully" to create something. Commitment has become more important to me. Use that thing or sound to your advantage instead of searching for what you perceive as the best thing. There is no best thing.

 

[FracKing]

Sorry... I can't see your point...

 

[DrewJD82]

I can’t say they’ve ever provided me anything other than passing forum entertainment, in a “Oh boy, can’t wait to see what the kids say about this…” muted enthusiasm kinda way.

 

[Chocol8]

It's a matter of evolution that normal humans hear with their eyes, and with their biases. Even people who train not to can be fooled by what they see or think they know.

Blind testing is the only way to actually know what you are hearing is coming from your ears and not synthesized by your brain.

 

[MirrorProfiles]

As much as I dislike blind tests, I’d much rather actually listen to amplifiers in use and figuring them out than reading about things like latency or aliasing

 

[JiveTurkey]

Depends on who is doing them? If it's from the "they all sound the same crew"; nah. If it's form someone here or on another forum doing testing for their own "scientific" purposes and to an end that isn't YT views? Sure. I never listen on anything that would give me a good shot at guessing right and the non-oscilloscope part of my brain is very dominant.

 

[Mooselake]

I can't say I like them or dislike them. I did learn through having at one time having taken them seriously that "good" and "accurate" aren't necessarily synonymous to my ear. One of the reasons I don't find them overly useful is that much of the sonic space I like to play in falls under the EoB umbrella and most of the comparisons I happen across are focused on high gain sounds so aren't telling me much about what I would be using a device for. The Stadium is a good case in point. All kinds of lively discussion and critique of the high gain stuff going on, while I am strolling around in the EoB realm with a lot of delighted contentedness.