Jeff,

In the first place I made it clear I would never mod ANYTHING without first having an extended period of time with the stock units in my listening room. Secondly it is not very high on my list of priorities. So any test I did would be so far down the line as to render it worthless. That said I would be interested in finding out how they sound.

However a double blind test would not prove a thing. How are we going to hold a legitimate double blind test in the internet environment. In theory it sounds good, but how do we set it up. If I am setting up the double blind test in my area, Are you going to believe me if I said there is a significant difference and published all the opinions of my friends in this area under a double blind setting. You would question my methods, my findings and then when all else failed just say I was biased in this debate. And in all honesty you would be right to do this. If you are in Maine and I am in Alabama there is just not a legitimate, inexpensive way to set this up. However we could all put up a little green and get a pair of these modded and pass them around letting those with stock units compare against the modded units. Surely there are enough 200 owners out there willing to put up a little money and hold the cost down. I think you would need to do this in stereo not multi channel. My interest in a mod for a center was based on how I felt they would sound with my current system. For the purpose of a serious listening test it would have to be 2 channels at a time or in a mono set up. I trust my ears, but not while listening in an HT format. So we use Music and either 2 channel or mono. We could have everyone set up one speaker and listen in mono using one unit at a time which is the perfect way to do it and save cost, but I don't think enough people would be willing to go to the trouble to change their home set up. Also if you think we can really hear a difference listening and watching "Rambo 3" then we are wasting everyone's time and money. So those involved would have to own at least 2 stock units to start with. I am willing to do that. We might even catch the interest of the retailer and if he is confident in his product he might cut us some slack on the price, say at his cost. Those involved in the test would have to be responsible for the frieght to the next guy or gal. At the end eveyone could post views. If after the test someone wanted the units they could buy out the others minus the fright. If the units were an absolute stinko we could auction them off and donate the money to an appropiate charity and write it off on taxs. That is a better way to handle it.

Now in all honesty this sounds good but after everyone has had a chance to listen to the units against his or her stock units in their listening rooms, we still won't prove anything except that we all have opinions. We will certainly have fun listening and enjoy a lot of debate. If enough people were involved we only spend a little money doing it. I would be interested in that and give my time and money (if we got enough people involved).

So now we have high interst level, low cost, and a chance for eveyone to get involved. Sounds good to me, but someone else needs to be the ringleader. I just can't do it right now. I can invest and participate but not set it up.

Also if you are just throwing this "double blind test" post out there as a kind of put your money where your mouth is gesture then I am not interested. I have been in this hobby to many years to be baited into something. During this debate I have gone out of my way to try not to influence anyone, pointing out that this is not for everyone. My post have at least had a little thought to them along with some opinions and experience. The true test is in the ears of the listener and only they can decide what is worth it and what is not.

[This message has been edited by OFCCM (edited June 10, 2003).]

[This message has been edited by OFCCM (edited June 10, 2003).]