I've been a member of AVforums for a good few years now and whilst I haven't quite reached the dizzy post count that I have on these forums I would like to think that I have helped the odd member out whilst learning a bit myself.
In 2007 I did a controlled side by side comparison of two identical projectors with the only difference being resolution. On of the PJ's was 720p and the other was 1080p. My results showed that regardless of the source material there was no perceivable difference between the two. That thread reached under 20 posts will little or no comment from the 'video heavyweights' on that forum. There have been numerous other studies and double blind tests to illustrate the same results but to this day people still insist that there are significant differences between the two (with all things being equal) I guess this is a victory for the 1080p fan boys and the consumer electronic companies. Do a search for 'is 1080p better than 720p' and you find threads with hundreds of posts on the merits of why one is better than the other but without providing any evidence to support their findings.
I am now in the process of building my home theatre and thus have been reading the many threads written by the more experienced members who's opinions I hold in high regard reviewing 'high end audio'. So after reading why amplifier x is so much better than amplifier y I decided to do some testing of my own. I bought a load of second hand high end power amps and got my friend who is a sound engineer to set the amplifiers up with as close to perfect matched levels as possible. This would help me with the old subjectivists vs objectivists argument.
So the testing began and we tested out cheapy Japanese power amps vs their higher end brethren. Testing knowing which amp was better was easy, as generally the more expensive amplifiers sounded so much nicer. It was only when we decided to do some blind testing that I came unstuck as there was no way I could tell which amplifier cost ten times more or had the better sound. I'm not too embarrassed to say that they both sounded identical and there was no difference in sound, you just could not pick one over the other.
So when I hear some of the heavyweights on that forum describe sound as a food critic would describe his dinner I can only laugh. I mean FFS, how possibly can you use exotic metaphors to describe an electrical signal path or use similar metaphors to give a character to an amplifier? How can such unaccountable reviews by unqualified testers with no expertise in audio video carry so much weight when their testing methodology is seriously flawed? Some of the rationales used to support their arguments have no scientific support whatsoever and are based on ego size alone.
The truth is that AVforums and other AV sites are starting to become a joke. The administrators are more concerned with keeping their advertisers happy and letting the forum 'pugaloos' spout their garbage as it reinforces the forum ideals. That is not to say that the forums are all bad, there are some really great members who have great expertise and are willing to help and share their knowledge.
In the coming months I will be doing more testing and documenting all of my findings, hopefully it will stop a few of our members from buying expensive AV hardware and pretending that it sounds better than it's cheaper alternative.
In 2007 I did a controlled side by side comparison of two identical projectors with the only difference being resolution. On of the PJ's was 720p and the other was 1080p. My results showed that regardless of the source material there was no perceivable difference between the two. That thread reached under 20 posts will little or no comment from the 'video heavyweights' on that forum. There have been numerous other studies and double blind tests to illustrate the same results but to this day people still insist that there are significant differences between the two (with all things being equal) I guess this is a victory for the 1080p fan boys and the consumer electronic companies. Do a search for 'is 1080p better than 720p' and you find threads with hundreds of posts on the merits of why one is better than the other but without providing any evidence to support their findings.
I am now in the process of building my home theatre and thus have been reading the many threads written by the more experienced members who's opinions I hold in high regard reviewing 'high end audio'. So after reading why amplifier x is so much better than amplifier y I decided to do some testing of my own. I bought a load of second hand high end power amps and got my friend who is a sound engineer to set the amplifiers up with as close to perfect matched levels as possible. This would help me with the old subjectivists vs objectivists argument.
So the testing began and we tested out cheapy Japanese power amps vs their higher end brethren. Testing knowing which amp was better was easy, as generally the more expensive amplifiers sounded so much nicer. It was only when we decided to do some blind testing that I came unstuck as there was no way I could tell which amplifier cost ten times more or had the better sound. I'm not too embarrassed to say that they both sounded identical and there was no difference in sound, you just could not pick one over the other.
So when I hear some of the heavyweights on that forum describe sound as a food critic would describe his dinner I can only laugh. I mean FFS, how possibly can you use exotic metaphors to describe an electrical signal path or use similar metaphors to give a character to an amplifier? How can such unaccountable reviews by unqualified testers with no expertise in audio video carry so much weight when their testing methodology is seriously flawed? Some of the rationales used to support their arguments have no scientific support whatsoever and are based on ego size alone.
The truth is that AVforums and other AV sites are starting to become a joke. The administrators are more concerned with keeping their advertisers happy and letting the forum 'pugaloos' spout their garbage as it reinforces the forum ideals. That is not to say that the forums are all bad, there are some really great members who have great expertise and are willing to help and share their knowledge.
In the coming months I will be doing more testing and documenting all of my findings, hopefully it will stop a few of our members from buying expensive AV hardware and pretending that it sounds better than it's cheaper alternative.
