Posted 06/03/2007 at 11:52:08am

The most basic factor in audio testing is to ensure that the audio levels are exactly the same A/B and I mean you have to measure it. It's well proven that even an tiny difference in volume will skew the results strongly toward the louder one. This phenomena is on display by snake oil salesmen in audio showrooms across the country...buyer beware.You make no mention of careful level matching. To be fair it would be very difficult to compare an earbud to an in ear phone audio level without sophisticated test setups. Secondly, there is a "squeaky wheel" effect as well-the casual lisener often mistakes distortion as having better highs or more "kick" in the bass simply because the distortions bring the attention to those frequencies. You see a dirty window but not a clean one. Important because distortion causes fatigue and can,sadly, lead to listeners wrongly concluding they just don't like listening to music all that much...