$10k Speaker Cables??????????????

n80...

the glaring absence of anything approaching credible and reproducible evidence creates a certain level of warranted skepticism and dismissal. And I suspect those who moan and groan the most about testing are those who stand to lose the most. That includes vendors, magazines and purveyors of dubious tweaks.

Feel free to be as skeptical and dismissive as you like, although I would point out that blind listening tests are often inconclusive and are much more difficult to properly conduct than many understand. I think it’s odd that many of those who advocate most vocally for blind testing are so reluctant to pursue it themselves, and instead argue that it should be someone else who conducts the test. In a way, I don’t blame them. I’ve participated in a few blind tests, and it’s a really tedious undertaking for all involved.

Was he an audiophile?

No, but if he'd been around today, he probably would have sold cables audiophiles ;-)

What PT Barnum said that’s relevant here is, people would generally be much better off if they believed in too much rather than too little. 

cleeds,
I generally agree with your point.
Blind tests can be tedius...and difficult.  So one really has to have the motivation to bother with them.  That's why I've only bothered doing them occasionally.   Some gear lends itself to more easy blind testing than others.   Virtually no one could do a truly controlled blind test of speakers in their home.   Though crude versions are kind of fun.  My pal once had me do a blind shoot out between some Spendor BC1s (as I remember) and Quad ESL 63s and it was surprisingly closer than I would have thought to tell them apart when I didn't know which I was listening to.  Though I could in fact identify each.

That I performed a blind test this year with a piece of gear was really due to the level of motivation I had - a problem I found really vexing, between my new digital server vs the method it was replacing. 

Frankly, though, if it were easier and I had access to the right gear and circumstances to test a wide variety of gear, I'd do a lot more blind testing, just out of curiosity.
(And if I were making/selling cables...you can bet I'd be doing blind testing before concluding I had something for which I felt comfortable charging lots of money!  But, hey, apparently that's must me....)

n80, no offense but judging by *your words* I know quite a bit more about the subject of testing than you do. I was the Govt witness for Final Test of a 2 Billion Dollar communications system, among many other things. Anyway, the point is negative results of a single test mean nothing since so many things can go wrong beyind the control of the tester, even a very thorough tester. In other words there is no such thing as a properly designed test. You may think you know something but you don’t. Capish?