More on Hi-Fi and suckers

For those interested in a more detailed science-based (as opposed to just unsupported opinion-based) discussion of why some of the expensive high-end trends in hi fidelity audio equipment are just marketing hype, read 24/192 Music Downloads are Silly.

As the author notes, it is not our ears that get fooled but our brains. We expect the more expensive equipment to sound better, so it does. We want the very expensive equipment we just bought to sound better, so it does. And as for the frequent advice to just go the store and listen to the equipment, any competent audio salesperson knows how to make the equipment with the higher profit margin sound more impressive by boosting the bass and/or treble a bit, or boosting the volume a little. In fact, it often only takes a bit of subtle suggestion from the salesperson  – “now listen to how much better this expensive amplifier sounds” – to convince the listener that they hear a difference. Humans are after all highly suggestible, as politicians and advertisers  prove every day.

The only valid test is a true double blind A/B test, where the same music, at the same volume and with the same equalization, is compered without either the listener or the tester knowing which sample is which.  Such tests reveal that in fact hardly anyone can reliably tell the difference between moderate quality equipment and expensive high-end equipment (though really cheap equipment can often be detected), nor between CD-quality recordings and “higher fidelity” 24-bit 192kHz recordings.  In fact, almost no one can even tell the difference between raw CD-quality WAV files and compressed 320kbs MP3 files, and few can even distinguish a difference in 192kbs MP3 files.