glupson,
One last bit.
You talked about the idea that confronting dubious high end audio claims, in public, is essentially a losing proposition.
I disagree.
I think it's always valuable to present, and defend if necessary, an alternative view. Insofar as skepticism about a claim has good grounds, then this can be important and useful input for other people. Yes, many people may have taken a stance on something, having dug in their heels or having sunk costs in terms of a business.
But there are always a lot of people watching as well who can be informed.
My own views were heavily influenced early on by debates (and not only in high end audio). So I paid attention to the quality of arguments when "objectivists" used to square off with "subjectivists" over various high end audio claims. And I'm very happy I did. I feel I've saved quite a bit of money, and time, and neuroticism, by concluding (even if tentatively until better evidence comes along) that many high end tweaks aren't worth my money and time. And my own experience using blind testing has helped me here and there.
So for instance, just recently I demoed a pair of speakers. The proprietor of the store, a nice, amiable gentleman, was a truly "classic audiophile" in terms of his thinking on many issues. I needed to bring CDs, not a drive or thumb drive of burned music, because, well "we just aren't there yet with ripping music to drives and streaming. It's just not doing any nice pair of speakers justice to play such sources."
And he had a super expensive CD transport and DAC, expensive interconnects, speaker cables, he "de-magnatized" all my CDs so they would sound better, used special damper on the CDs...you name it, he checked the "everything makes a difference" box (including talk of ethernet cables).
Now, none of this made any impression on me because...I've been there, done that, I understand the quality of evidence he is basing his beliefs upon.
And, wouldn't you know it, despite ALL of that talk, all of the steps he went through - INCREDIBLY expensive steps - to ensure the best sound possible...what I heard didn't really hold a candle to what I hear back home on my system. I have basic interconnects, basic beldon speaker cable, my CDs ripped to a cheap little usb drive streamed via a cheap raspberry pi sever. And when I played back the same tracks at home, I heard every damned bit of "reverb trails" and "tonal purity" in my system (in fact, better, because it's a better speaker and better room acoustics).
IF I were some susceptible newbie, a salesman like that could - completely honestly from his own point of view - persuade me to spend ungodly sums of money on the steps and tweaks he believes necessary to get good digital sound. I am very happy to be informed enough to realize I don't need to follow in his footsteps.
A lot of audiophiles have often commented "I don't WANT X to make a difference, but my ears tell me it does, which is why I spend the money and effort on it." (For instance, AC cables or other tweaks). I've heard that so many times, as if wanting it not to make a difference means, if they "heard" a difference it must be real. And that's a naive understanding of how our perception works.
But for anyone who thinks like this, if they are spending, or about to spend lots of time and money on a tweak, I'd expect they would actually want to know if that tweak actually alters the sound of the system, in reality. If someone really would rather not spend money on a false claim, then seeing the case for being skeptical can be quite enlightening or useful.
If you for instance take a look at the length many of the Michael Green "Tuners" go to, it's really quite something to behold. Components taken apart, strewn between speakers, everything carefully arrange on special wood blocks etc. Now, If that's what someone gets a kick out of doing...I would never want to say "don't do it." Hey, everyone likes to have a hobby.
BUT...for anyone who really cares about not wasting their time and money on something that is only in their imagination - and I tend to doubt that many would choose to have the rather unsightly splaying of components and wires in their room if they didn't think it was improving their sound - for those people seeing a skeptical case presented that they may be doing just that, can actually be beneficial.
But, one's subjective experience is something most people find really hard to question. And when you combine the strength of the subjective "this makes a great difference!" with the various levels of satisfaction people get from tweaking their system, there's often not a lot of motivation to challenge their own beliefs.
