Two-level factorial experimentation might make music for my ears


I am a fan of classical music – it soothes my mind and lifts my spirits.  Maybe I’m deluded, but I swear there’s a Mozart effect* on my brain.  However, a big monkey wrench comes flying in on my blissful state when my stereo speaker (always only one of the two) suddenly goes into a hissy fit. I’ve tried a number of things on a hit-or-miss basis and failed to find the culprit.  At this point I think it’s most likely the receiver itself – a Yamaha RX496.  However, before spending the money to replace it, I’d like to rule out a number of other factors:

  1. Speaker set: A vs B
  2. Speaker wire: Thin vs Thick.
  3. Source: CD vs FM-Radio
  4. Speaker: Left vs Right.

It’s very possible that an interaction of two or more factors may be causing the problem, so to cover all bases I need to do all 16 possible combinations (2^4).  But, aside from the work this involves for all the switching around of parts and settings, I am stymied by the failure being so sporadic.

Anyways, I feel better now having vented this to my blog while listening to some soothing Sunday choir music by the Dale Warland Singers on the local classical radio station.  I’m taking no chances: It’s playing on my backup Panasonic SA-EN25 bookshelf system.

*Vastly over-rated according to this report by the Skeptic’s Dictionary.

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