"Audiophile Grade" Ethernet Switches - The new generation

[thumb5]

Having said that, @thumb5 is somewhat dismissive of the reports users make on the basis that they are reports from a self selected group of people with a "bias towards expecting a sonic improvement". There's nothing one can do at the moment about self selection when the only people who have had a real chance to hear the device have only been able to do so because they bought the one they're listening to and the company is still in the process of filling all of the orders received since they released the product. One can equally question whether there's selection bias involved in any group of individuals who participate in a listening test, especially if that test is conducted by someone who strongly believes or disbelieves in the product.

Be honest, David, if you criticised ASR's measurement for being non-scientific, how can you happily accept uncontrolled, anecdotal, sighted listening reports from a group of people who have been "in on" the development of the ER and by all accounts were so eager to buy one that the first batch of production sold out in minutes?  Would you not agree that they had a very high susceptibility to expectation and confirmation bias?

I doubt we're ever going to see a listening test that he would be completely happy with, simply because that sort of test is extremely expensive to set up and conduct and it's hard to get access to the budget and facilities required for such a test unless there is a compelling reason to conduct the test.

Agreed.  Probably more to the point, who would fund such a test?  The only people who would benefit would be UpTone and then only if the test gave a positive result.  It is a very high risk for them to take in case the test produced a negative result.

Self selection should raise a flag but it doesn't guarantee that the reports it proves are less reliable than other reports. 

Self selection certainly does mean these reports are unreliable if you want to distinguish the behaviour of the ER from placebo.  On the other hand, if you're interested in hearing stories about what people hear, of course the self-selection is irrelevant.