Tin Foil Hat Audio

Yes, what you say rings a bell for many I think, but until one has really acquired acute hearing skills it woulds be premature to judge and, FWIW, a lot of folks in these forums just haven't arrived at that level of expertise. Caveat emptor for sure, and don't fail to exercise your common sense, but don't be too closed minded lest you look like a fool.

I'm more and more convinced that what we need around here is a good thread on placebos. I doubt there is any tweak out there that hasn't been credited with creating placebo effect. If I take a placebo and it cures my pain, do I care that it's a placebo? If I replace my amp's fuses and hear a blacker background, who says I'm nuts, or a sucker?  Probably find out when I report it here and feel the heat from the deniers.

I'm having too much fun with my placebos to quit now!

On a side note:
I always find it interesting how some listeners swear on needing a break-in period on many components for the better sound to be revealed to them. That may be true, but more importantly to me is how my ears actually need time to adjust to a new component. Pretty much every time I change something, my observation of the sound will be different from the time of purchase to two months down the road whether a component needs break-in or not. I personally think my ears adjusting to a new sound has more to do than the break-in period. Just me.

Completely agree with this:

I'm having too much fun with my placebos to quit now!

Placebo effect is a real, documented thing of course, but if it works, it works.  If a doctor prescribed me a medication and said something to the effect of, "now, this medication works at solving your problem for 99% of the population, but we absolutely know that's due purely to the placebo effect of just taking something", it's not like I would reply, "no, doctor, I can't take it because I object to placebo effects on principle."  I'd be taking it in a heartbeat!  (Those of you in the medical field may actually know of some extremely commonly prescribed medications that according to meta-analyses achieve no better results than placebo...)

On the other hand, if a person is not responsive to placebos, they should not be derided as people who can't hear, or people who only care about measurements, or people who only judge by price, etc.

We should all remember that our tastes, hearing, brains, budgets, rooms and gear are all different; and what works for us will not necessarily work for someone else and vice versa.