Audiophiles should learn from people who created audio

This seems appropriate, an excerpt from the Intro of Zen and the Art of Debunkery,

As the millennium turns, science seems in many ways to be treading the weary path of the religions it presumed to replace. Where free, dispassionate inquiry once reigned, emotions now run high in the defense of a fundamentalized "scientific truth." As anomalies mount up beneath a sea of denial, defenders of the Faith and the Kingdom cling with increasing self-righteousness to the hull of a sinking paradigm. Faced with provocative evidence of things undreamt of in their philosophy, many otherwise mature scientists revert to a kind of skeptical infantilism characterized by blind faith in the absoluteness of the familiar. Small wonder, then, that so many promising fields of inquiry remain shrouded in superstition, ignorance, denial, disinformation, taboo . . . and debunkery.

• Put on the right face. Cultivate a condescending air certifying that your personal opinions are backed by the full faith and credit of God. Adopting a disdainful, upper-class manner is optional but highly recommended.

• Employ vague, subjective, dismissive terms such as "ridiculous," "trivial," "crackpot," or "bunk," in a manner that purports to carry the full force of scientific authority.

• Keep your arguments as abstract and theoretical as possible. This will send the message that accepted theory overrides any actual evidence that might challenge it -- and that therefore no such evidence is worth examining.

The above says it all.

@geoffkait agreed! Ken Wilber uses the term scientism. I like that. It's the ossification of what should be a fluid and dynamic understanding of the world using science into a dogmatic structure where anything that hasn't been 'proven' by science is deemed to be nonexistent or inconsequential.
It's all underlaid by the mind's desire for certainty. Always having to figure things out is stressful and makes it difficult to maintain the illusion of an independent self operating upon the world. And that is frankly terrifying for most people. I see it almost every time I teach a yoga class or meditation session..

@don_1

I agree that the Audio industry is doing just fine. Better sounding components and reasonable prices for great equipment. My point of that article was my belief about certain components as speaker WIRE, interconnects, and the money gouging companies who sell these products st exorbitant prices. But to each his own. Just my opinion. AND THE SKY HASN'T FALLEN AS OF YET!

My definition of GOUGING is monopoly on a necessity and companies charging more than normal.   Basically low supply, normal/high demand so price rises.   IE:  hurricane, water or gasoline supply low so prices jacked up.    Whether justified is dependent on the situation.

But with cables, it's NOT a necessity.   Owners choose to buy them and SUCCESSFUL companies just listening to their customers.

Cables are part of a system so will rise or fall along with components.

BTW, Gordon Holt is no Warren Buffet IMO!