Quick vs. slow

November 13, 2020 by Paul McGowan

Our YouTube channel has more than 120,000 subscribers and boy do they like to comment on my daily videos. Which is great because, for the most part, comments made are actually kind and encouraging. Of course, there's the occasional commenter that gets up on the wrong side of the bed or who had the misfortune of someone farting in their breakfast cereal. Every so often a YouTube commenter writes something far better than I am able to. On the subject of AB testing, socksumi wrote:

"Long term listening will reveal differences that instant A-B tests miss. We don't have perfect discernment at an instant. Especially with a signal like music that itself is changing every millisecond. Over time however differences make themselves known. We learn the sound of a component by familiarizing ourselves with it which can take awhile. It's why an audio system can sound great in the store but after getting it home and living with it a while, colorations and distortions begin to manifest that you didn't notice in the store."

Not only is this correct but it belies a deeper understanding than most. It's what I have been preaching for years. As always, it's tempting to make snap judgments, pointing to quick "proof" that supports your worldview. Quick observations, like quick AB testing, might be fine for a machine but not we humans.