Why is the snake oil topic closed?

Moops - you say I was challenged? When? By whom? What topic?  😀

What tweaks purportedly do cannot be quantitated or otherwise objectively measured. They are by their very nature elusive. That can cause problems for certain personality types.

We have all invested in our setups, financially and emotionally. Some then go the extra step and invest in tweaks. What we crave is certainty as to what these devices are doing to our listening experience. When clear answers are not forthcoming, we tend to force the issue, by forming fixed opinions and ideaologies, partially based on what we want to hear rather than what we are really hearing. When challenged, some of us become angry, i.e., defensive at the suggestion that we might have fallen victim to the snake oil salesman.

I have had several costly tweaks in my system for some years now. Were I to suddenly toss them all, I seriously doubt that I would miss them. Maybe someday I'll try it, if I can find the time and motivation to do so.

Tit for tat. This is why we still have tribalism and wars.
This thread would make Jonathan Swift proud.

I have had several costly tweaks in my system for some years now. Were I to suddenly toss them all, I seriously doubt that I would miss them.

Well said. +1

Cheers George

psag
What tweaks purportedly do cannot be quantitated or otherwise objectively measured. They are by their very nature elusive. That can cause problems for certain personality types.

>>>>>>I’m not sure I totally agree with your detective work. I divide tweaks up into two groups. One group can be quantitated and objectively measured, assuming someone actually did measure them, which as I’ve pointed out previously no one ever does, or rarely does. Tweaks I put into this group are vibration isolation devices, tiny little bowl resonators, even crystals in some applications (Room Acoustics), Helmholtz resonators. Audiophiles often assume certain tweaks like crystals can’t be measured or quantified.

OK, so the second group is the one that gets audiophiles’ panties in a bunch. This is the group of tweaks that includes but is not limited to things that go bump in the night, OR things that would be very difficult to measure even though they sort of make sense. This group includes of course the Peter Belt foils and pens and message labels, Machina Dynamica’s Clock and the Teleportation Tweak (duh!), the Tice Clock, contact enhancers, but also more mundane tweaks such as cones and other footers, CD treatments, CD demagnetizers, power cords, power conditioners, fuses, and cryogenics in general, and of course wire directionality.

OK, let the angst and hand wringing commence. 😩