I think it would help if the topic called "snake oil" won't be taken so seriously! ;-) ...Seriously!!!
It is just snake oil, so by definition it should be fun talk, not name-calling and endless accusations.
Art Dudley (of Listener, now one of the seniors at Stereophile) said once that he would have to stick a few feathers up his, ahem, hat, while showing the Mping dots to his beighbors. If Shakti Stone sitting on top of my Nap250 makes me smile and prevents the pile of jewel cases from scratching my beloved amp, why would I substitute it for the ugly Yellow Pages? Shakti looks nice, and according to my wife "kills Naim sound"... so there is some effect according to non-blind test! :-)
I do not see myself accusing Ferrari driver stuck next to me in LA traffic of stupidity, Ferrari makes him happy. $1000 a pop Shunyata power cords make me happy,... an unpleasant and far more costly visit to Newman Markus or Theodore makes my Boss happy. I do not see myself (well, do not dare!) calling her Stupid! Black Holes, Quantum Mechanics, interferometers and whatnot will show nothing special about $$$ dress, so what?
Those "ashamed of themselves" by being here, move onto McIntosh, or Linn, Krell, Harman/Kardon forums.
All the gizmos are sold with some return policy, I do not see many posts here saying that folks tried Nordost Valhalla and then ran back to Audio Advisor or RadioShack-on-line. Why is that?
reminds me of "scientific" discussion with Olympus sales rep about my stupidity of using Zeiss and Leica microscopes in my research. It turned as ugly as some posts on Snake Oil. Is there an agenda on both sides??? Preaching McDonalds (dont get me wrong, totally respectful establishment) to Audiogon crowd? Why???
BTW (returning to the beginning of this lengthy rambling), what are you talking about, what is the definition of SnakeOil as opposed to Tweaks? Sounds the same to me as "all TT/amps/CD players sound the same" from prev generation of 'Goners ;-)