Who says cables don't make a difference?

" And in my considerable experience, things like shungite, quartz, myrtlewood, and the like placed on top of electrical components such as amplifier transformers achieve their results through a pair of phenomena called confirmation bias and expectational bias."

Great, this again... Or, maybe they do shield the system from electromagnetic interference.

In regard to your statement about cheap IC’s not "adding anything" to the signal... If only. They add a level of harshness & haze to the signal that CAN BE eliminated with a cable of proper design.

imo cables matter

but it is also the easiest area to go overboard with lowest cost / benefit

lots of snake oil in the cable market, moreso than in components i wd say

cables prices vs production costs leads to highest margins in the industry, thus the greed/exploitation factor is the most extreme (in an industry where the average level of marketing bs is already fairly high)

And in my considerable experience, things like shungite, quartz, myrtlewood, and the like placed on top of electrical components such as amplifier transformers achieve their results through a pair of phenomena called confirmation bias and expectational bias. But if you think these things make your system sound better, then that’s all that matters, isn’t it? Me, I think taking the money that others spend on improvements of dubious scientific worth, And buying more music improves my system immensely. :)

I respect your experience, but mine is different...

Do you think that my unconscious was inventing a specific bias to the compressive effect of sound by shungite, the very different decompressive effect of quartz? the audible effect on the imaging by kambaba jasper, the cleaning powerful effect on all frequencies of herkimer diamond and all other very specific effects of all stones, negative effects and positives effects also of lava beads, amethysts, Tourmaline ?

For the money question, all my tweaks are homemade and low costs, all comes from my own experiments... All my idea are free and i sell nothing...

The results are powerful and cost peanuts, there is limit to what your imagination can create without your consent except among few total lunatics in asylum unfit to walk... Your answer remind me of the explanation about UFO by military intelligence 60 years ago....Awake yourself....Dont trust others and experiment yourself ....

:)

Boxer12;

I have ever made a comment about ICs, cheap or expensive. You have me confused with someone else, I’m afraid.

About your electromagnetic radiation comment. You are assuming that it is always present in all systems in enough quantity to audibly affect the signal being conducted. There is no evidence that I know of that supports that assumption. While possible, it should certainly be easy enough to test that hypothesis. If there was anything to it, I would suspect that cable manufacturers of interconnects whose designs yielded the lowest interference measurements would use those in their advertising to increase sales and making choosing interconnects easier for customers. But no such tests or measurements seem to exist. If “boutique” cable manufacturers actually try to technically explain their product’s superiority, they usually do it with technological nonsense. Most companies don’t bother to explain what even they don’t understand.

After a power cord delivers the needed Amp and required voltage to the PS of an amplifier it had no effect on the sound . Filtering your line in an urban area may be.