Why is the snake oil topic closed?

Its a good idea to separate measurable and non measurable tweaks. I'm pretty certain that equipment isolation is fast becoming practice and will soon lose its tweak status.

And then there's unnecessary engineering, eg  where should you stop at, 20kHz, 40kHz, or 80kHz or not at all? 

We cannot move forwards without science, otherwise we could call in a Witch Doctor to cast a magic spell on our Hi-Fi. It'd probably work wonders for some....

psag wrote,

”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.

>>>>>>>That sounds like an operator error. No offense. Since most tweaks, especially expensive ones, have a 30 day money back guarantee you should have established whether the expensive tweaks you invested in worked in the first place. Think of tweaks like components, you’ll be better off in the long run.  It’s a little silly to express buyer’s remorse when you didn’t do your due diligence.

We don’t want unmotivated tuna. Sorry Charlie. 🐬

The only way forward left is through improvements in microphone, headphone and loudspeaker technology. Distortion figures for amps, CD players, DACs, cables etc are already vanishingly low. Even transducers are pretty good outside the bass region which naturally enough imparts greater stresses on equipment materials and structure. Loudspeakers also have still to get rid of the crossover and remain full bandwidth.

As for recording quality, its out there but perhaps just not in the genres we all listen to. If it becomes profitable for the industry to do so then we might see a huge jump in recording quality. If. 

After all, if they could do it in the 1950s, then they should be able to do it far better now that 'bouncing down' in digital is infinitely less harmful. I'm guessing that the consumers back in the early days wanted better sound and the industry wanted to give it to them.

After Beatlemania, everything changed. Or maybe it was already going that way already. The era of the voice was coming to an end. Bing, Louis, Frank, Nat, Judy, Doris, Peggy etc were all on the way out. Their recordings will remain forever.

Mikado and Nonoise said it all. Actually, believe or not, despite the technical & information evolution in so many ways, the world is much worse than fifty-sixty years ago. Remember it ? Back in the swirling sixties Manking had some hope (people like Beatles sang about it), the seventies saw its slow journey to depression, cynicism it was to be exact culminating not only in politics but namely in punk rock and all that rubbish in pop culture. I call it lazy and negative attitude to almost anything so in many ways really. And now finally in the brave new Millenium Mankind has given the power to those who deeply hate democracy, practically everywhere around the globe.
Mankind has learned nothing, unfortunately.

The fate of Mankind is in the hands of fools. Quite literally.

The wall on which the prophets wrote
Is cracking at the seams.
Upon the instruments of death
The sunlight brightly gleams.
When every man is torn apart
With nightmares and dreams.
Will no one lay the laurel wreath
As silence drowns the screams.

Between the iron gates of fate
The seeds of time were sown.
And watered by the deeds of those
Who know and who are known;
Knowledge is a deadly friend
When no one sets the rules.
The fate of all mankind I see
Is in the hands of fools.

Confusion will be my epitaph.
As I crawl a cracked and broken path.
If we make it we can all sit back
and laugh.
But I fear tomorrow I´ll be crying.
Yes I fear tomorrow I´ll be crying.

- Greg Lake, 1969