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John Kenny
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- #61
As I read further into this article it began to light up more more warning lights due to it's unscientific & incorrect statements, then I came across this "In the experiment de-scribed above, the subjects said that they "preferred" one of two identical sound clips more than 75 percent of the time, even when there was a "No Preference" box to check on the score sheet." Hmmmm, if you want to present evidence for a preference & don't believe in anecdotal reports, then don't present an anecdotal report.Okay, you have Don's input on the matter. I have done my own tests that might not make it to .2 db, they do make it to .25 db.
There is this:
https://archive.org/stream/pdfy-ZGJ4B3_VGwVs9CCt/Can-You-Trust-Your-Ears_djvu.txt
One of the items is a test with 31 people half of two 30 second bits of music are level matched, and half aren't. The unmatched ones are 1 db louder. No one picked up on a loudness difference with music. 75% described a quality difference.
OK, thanksSo is it .1 db or is it 1 db? It is somewhere in that range. Since there are now a few instances relayed to you how people hear a difference, ascribe it to quality and don't perceive the difference is loudness the case is on solid ground that at some point below where listeners hear a loudness difference they do hear a quality difference. Maybe you don't have certainty it is just above .1 db, but it is at or below 1 db. It indicates matching by ear to perceived volume equality leaves a gap of some size where you still hear quality differences even if none are there. So that should make one wary of level matching by ear. As you at that point have to do some kind of measuring even if only with a multi-meter you might as well do it to .1 db. If someone only does it to a .25 db it might be worth looking into. I wouldn't give much credibility to more than that myself as some tests of JND with complex signals show a threshold of only .5 db. So that question is pretty well answered for you.
The JND for music is not quite as firmly established. The general trend in audio testing is listening tests with appropriate artificial signals is more discerning than with music. If you are striving for much rigor you wouldn't use the loosest criteria. So if the JND for music is 3 db, I wouldn't accept listening tests about much using matching no better.