Art Dudley Calls B.S. but without naming names - PLEASE DO!

Any high priced class D amp.

Anything produced by Synergistic Research.

 There are a lot of people saying how they upgraded from this to that and no one, but themselves, know the degree of improvement.When someone says they used something they thought was a good value,used it for years and then found something that was an even better value that "blew it out of the water".Does "blew it out of the water" mean 20% improvement, 40 % improvement.The actual degree of improvement we are always left in the dark on, even with adjectives like that phrase.I propose that it would be good to implement some kind of system of improvement percentages,so people can know what others mean.I do mods and after I do a successful one without even consciously trying to rate it % wise, my mind after listening to often repeated tracks, always just automatically thinks," hey, thats about 20% more open sounding or however much the improvement it is.Figuring out what % something improved it by is very subjective and probably never 100% accurate, but on my personal yardstick as an example, putting speakers under a good set of cones amounts to what in my mind is usually about a 15% improvement, greening the edge of a CD a 6 or 7% improvement.Cleaning all my interconnects and RCA terminals after about a year I think I heard over a 15% improvement once.These percentages might not be 100% accurate or even that close, but at least they are consistent, relative to my own personal estimates and numbers.If Stereophile rates something as a low class B, about how higher % wise is something in high class B ?The degree of difference is of utmost importance, but people Don't seem to express this in meaningful accurate terms and instead use colorful adjectives to describe the improvement, but what would you liken the improvement to? Unlike most audiophiles I have a big  collection of Holiday music.I continually try to improve my sound throughout the year; every year modding and purchasing.When it gets towards the end of the year and I start playing my holiday music, if my year has been a good one for improving my sound, (50% or more), its like the biggest "WOW" ever, because this is music that I have not played for a whole year since last holiday time and playing something you know oh so well  after a year of improving your system is much more "wow" like, than playing something you play regularly as the improvement train moves slowly but steadily forward.Like seeing a face of someone you know, every few months.You probably will not notice any aging because its gradual, but if you see them every 5 years.Thats different.Sometimes you might hardly recognize them as in"Wow".So if you get new gear and there is an improvement; is it a greening a CD improvement or something much more dramatic.Giving estimated percentages might be of value to others and also being more specific as to what areas of improvement.Remember there are people who might buy what you are describing and it might even bias them to get it.

jhills
P.T. Barnum, the second greatest conman/showman ever, once said "There is a sucker born every minuet"....Jim

Nope, sorry, Jimbo, P.T. never said it. What he did say was, “People would generally be much better off if they believed in too much rather than too little.”

geoff

@geoffkait   Too bad he didn't say "There is a sucker born every minuet".  A very musical quote to be sure!😛

Audio today is in a death price spiral  manufacturer A raises prices since so many audiophiles correlate price with performance so manufacturer Bs lower price on top model is seen as being lower in performance over costlier model A thus manufacturer of B raises prices now manufacturer A top model is no longer consider the best by audiophiles who correlate price with performance and now they must raise prices. At the same time these high priced offerings are selling in less nums since price increases  thus price is increased again to cover costs...