The Emperor Has No Clothes!!

If you believe it sounds better, it will sound better. 

We think we like good music. There is no objective, good music.

Seems there is no shortage of snake oil customers and the flat-Earth movement is growing by the minute. Count me in. 

If you are convinced you can hear a difference under normal listening conditions, that's one thing. If you can show there's a measurable difference that is well established to be enough to be detectable, that's a more interesting thing. If you can repeatedly convince others who are skeptical that you can hear a difference under normal conditions that is unmeasurable or measurable but well established to be inaudible, then that's a VERY interesting thing. 

Interesting things sometimes happen. VERY interesting things are extremely rare, and science and knowledge moves forward when we encounter those and investigate.

This is a jaded bunch. It seems many of you have not had the pleasure of experiencing a well tuned, high end system. Brick & Mortar stores are scarce these days and even then finding a well done set up is rare. Visiting an Axpona is a great way to experience audio systems. Even there, out of the dozens of rooms I visited only a couple of systems stood out for me- and not the most expensive systems. Even if out of reach, hearing a well done high end system can be an inspiration- like watching pro golfers play. Then one can get a sense of what is possible. The first rule of audio: Your system sounds great until you hear something better.

The OP’s system, for example. That is a nice stereo (your cat acts like he owns the place) and a beautiful room. But that wall of glass destroys the sound- only that room looks so good I don’t think I could change a thing in there myself. It’s an example of the compromises we have to make. Still, it is likely difficult to distinguish subtle changes in that room. The room is the most important component in a stereo system.

Think about standing on the end of a long dock on a lake. Drop a pebble. See the nice, perfect concentric rings the waves make where the pebble fell into the water? Now drop a pebble in a small container of water. The concentric rings reflect off the sides of the container and the ripples quickly become a lot of hash. That is what is happening in a listening room. Room design and room treatments absorb those reflections or redirects them to make the room seem more like a lake than a small container. Some heavy drapes would help that room a lot but there goes the view.

And one other thing- leaving a car dirty does harm to the paint. I just cringed when I read that. Automatic car washes are not good for the paint either. Nothing like a sponge, mild soap and a bucket of cold water. I bought my first new car in 1980. I washed it by hand regularly. Everyone said I would soon tire of that. I never have.