We simply can't tell

[lethal_pizzle]

It's just so minute that certain people are blessed with the ability and others aren't (seemingly 50/50)

Those maths don't add up. If nobody could tell the difference then people would still get it right 50% of the time. If half the people could, you'd get a 75/25 split.
The variance from this is tiny and probably within the margin for error. The results suggest that about one audiophile in twenty-five can tell the difference.

[SlvrDragon50]

The design of the experiment should account for probability of people merely guessing it correctly through repetition eliminating the 50% correct if nobody could tell the difference.

I didn't read through the methods, but if they didnt do that, the study is severely flawed.

[Karlos Santos]

It certainly proves that if you were playing in a nightclub to a crowd entirely made up of audiophiles and sound engineers, that maybe one of two of them could tell a difference. But they'd all be arguing about it all night anyway. Seriously, screw that club.

Simply brilliant...!!!

[lethal_pizzle]

The design of the experiment should account for probability of people merely guessing it correctly.

Yeah. I just skimmed the article and they state that nobody consistently got it right, which means that we're looking at a larger group of people overperforming by far less.

[Synaptic Flow]

Sorry, but I've been hearing this bollocks for 20 years now, and it's the same thing now as it was then - bollocks.

I've heard the same thing about SD/HD video, cassette vs vinyl, DAB vs FM, etc etc.

The simple fact is that there ARE individuals out there who can tell the difference between one medium and another.

Or is it that they think they can tell a difference? The whole audiophile world is a odd thing to me because it seems like so much of it can be perception of the mind, not just the ears.