Hi,

"Roderick Stewart" wrote in message
om...

It was only because my colleague is a professional sound mixer that I even
entertained the notion of bothering to try this at all. I've no idea what
could
have happened when he swapped cables to make his system sound different,
and it's
rather worrying that someone doing his job might be "hearing" differences
that
aren't there. Apparently even the people that mix the original material
are human
too, so where does that leave objectivity?

This happens more than I would like to admit. I worked as a live sound
engineer, and on a few occasions I've reached out to a large mixing desk,
tweaked
a knob or fader to make a small adjustment and later realised I'd picked a
channel
that wasn't connected to anything. Do that a few times and you start to
realise the
meaning of 'expectation bias' and the value of controlled listening tests.
Any sound
engineer who claims to have never done this is probably telling porkies.

It comes in handy sometimes though - on more than one occasion musicians
have
asked me to do something stupid with a monitor mix while they are on stage.
You
look them straight in the eye, grab an unconnected knob and start to twist,
then
raise your eyebrows in a sort of 'is that better?' gesture from the side of
stage. Often
they'll give you a happy nod and smile. If you don't get the nod, then
there's
probably work to do.

Regards,

Glenn.