There is a longstanding dispute on the nature of cross-modal correspondences. Observing transitive cross-modal matches, von Hornbostel (1931) concluded that they are absolute, irrespective of their context, and mediated by a common intensity scale shared by almost all modalities. Cohen (1934) rejected the transitivity property on empirical grounds, and suggested that cross-modal matches are relative, depending on the relative position of the judged stimuli in their respective modality. Available experimental results, interpreted as falling half-way between the predictions derived from absolute and relational theories, cannot contribute to resolve the issue in favor of one of the theories, and call for a new perspective. Global psychophysics, in its extension to the cross-modal case, offers a kind of hybrid approach, combining absolute cross-modal correspondences with relational judgments. The talk discusses previously published and new empirical evidence in the context of this framework, and investigates the implications on properties of cross-modal matches, like transitivity.