Advice on....Snake Oil

It can be very difficult to prove fraud legally. Especially when the fraud has to do with largely subjective judgement such as sound quality. This entire site is basically about sound quality and various claims about it which is mostly a subjective judgement. But it is very naive to assert fraud does not exist especially in that kind of environment. In many cases it gets downgraded to “snake oil”. Credibility is really the only thing one has here in the eyes of others and worth preserving. It is not credible to assert that all here are perfect angels all the time as a result of their common love or obsession with sound. 
My advice:  
Just be realistic and steer the course. There are always a few bad apples. Trust but verify when called for. Otherwise just have fun!

Dill, your first post is spot on, in very few words. They don’t want , or can’t spend, or entrenched in their “science”.
exactly cleeds, they’re not trying to protect anything except to keep their personal bubble from bursting. They’re the ones when shown the blue pill and red pill, run away from either. There may very well be people who feel they don’t hear a difference, or feel, what they hear justifies the expense. There’s not a thing wrong with that, they’re not out trying to convince anyone that they didn’t hear what they claim they did. It makes no sense to spend if the value is not there for you. Why they are so hell bent on trying to convince us not to believe our own ears, not to spend for our own enjoyment ( last I checked, it’s my money I’m spending) 

what some would call "snake oil".

Why?
Because as we know from CV19,  propaganda goes a  veryyyy longgg way.
You can not always believe what you read, hear, 
As Kevin Deal says at Upscale aAudio,, <<If they are not showing pics of the guts of any component = means they are hiding something>> He is right. Its the old saying, a  pic tells a thosand words,, before i make any purcahse i carefully look at the guts, and weight. 
If it looks gorgeous from the outside, but inside pic looks like garbage,, and weight is puny,, I know its all hype. 
Guts + weight says alot. 
Who wants to  pay top $ for a   toy sized  transformer?
Lets rephrase your **snakeoil** which really only applies to mods/upgrades (new caps, new resistors new tubes) , for  describing a  components reputation, lets tag  it <<hype>>
There is alot of hype in this hobby. 
Snakeoil buster here. 

mapman

It can be very difficult to prove fraud legally ...

Of course. That’s why we have lawyers. Yet it still appears that notwithstanding the frequent accusations of fraud that are made on this site, no one - not one single person - has ever even filed a complaint of fraud with authorities. Not one single time. That can’t be simply explained away by stating that fraud difficult to prove. No proof is required to file a complaint.

If fraud were a real problem in our world of hi-fi, you’d think at least one lawsuit seeking class action status would have been filed. After all the US is a rather litigious place - just consider some of the absurd lawsuits that have been filed: A woman who sued the government because she was burned by nacho cheese; class action status sought for suit claiming Garden Veggie Straws have no veggies;
and then there’s the class action effort regarding fake butter at Dunkin’.

So the explanation that no suit has been filed over hi-fi fraud because it would be difficult to prove just isn’t valid. Besides, it isn’t necessary to actually prove the allegation of fraud. The vast majority of cases are settled out of court.

I think use of the word really just reflects laziness. It’s an overused cliche that says nothing at all

As i say above, Components as a  whole, can be hyped, = over promoted = propagandized. 
Snakeoil is like feet under amps, certain expensive cables, certain room treaments,  can't name the all.
All sorts of weird ideas which pass off as *upgrades*. 
Hype pertains to some opinions i read on audiogon about certain components which i <know> are being over blown. 
Take electrstats, some folks still believe in that garbage, = to me its hyped.. Is this my personal bias, or it there some truth that electrostats area  real genuine speaker experience?
I can't stand that technology. How it ever survived this long, and even ever sold, beats me. 
Now that i am on my personal bias, might as well mention solid state amplification,, Just for the record,, how is this dinosaurish technology still hanging on?? 
man, tube amplification (not SET, which i also can't stand) has blown away anything solid state. 
Now you might say,, hey thats snakeoil, worse,, hype.
AS I see it its the solid state fans hyping that style of electronics.
I think its time we tell things just like we know it. This is 2020, not the year 2000 which i consider late middle ages in  audiophile land. 
I am trying to bring this hobby up through the 21st century, exposing the <frauds>, the <hype> and the 100% pure <snakeoil>
Snakeoil buster here...