RGA,

DBTs are NOT unrelated to normal listening situations. Turn down the treble, and you will hear the effect during open as well as DBT conditions.There is a lot in the research of audiology and psychology on long term and short term audibility. For a given signal it is much easier to do fast switching to hear a difference. What might be the case for long-term listening is that certain signals or music passages might reveal any faults more easily than others. That's why certain tests such as low-bass content, low-level recorded signals at high volume and transients are more revealing than streaming music and is often chosen for testings made by the Swedish Audio Technical Society. Again differences are not heard if you play a signal one day and change to another one the other day. But comparing the signals with very short intervals makes it obvious. And yes, I've done it, it is easier to hear the difference with fast-swicthing than during long-term listening and slow switching.

Regarding HiFi choice's tests:

Why do they "assume" a difference from start? Since they assume a difference and describe them by subjective impressions, they would really be able to do an objective test and verify this, don't you agree? Why don't they use a reference to compare with too see if there is a difference? If there is a difference, they can attribute the difference as bright, dull or whatever characteristics they hear. This would be the most objective procedure. As such there is nothing from their tests that really imply an audible difference.

Or why don't they have a test leader that makes a similar test with only 3 players and repeat the test randomly with 10 trials (3 x 10 in a random fashion). If they would score identical in their subjective impressions on each player 10 times, they could validate whether the test method works or not. As it is now there is nothing saying that their method is reliable.

T