May I ask: how do you find your evidence? What “persuades” you?
Well, to take the example that started our conversation: fleschler is claiming Benchmark cheaped out on the parts for the Benchmark LA4, and that "better" grade parts would have made for better performance.
The type of evidence that would persuade me for this claim is what I asked of fleshcler: Show me that another preamp with the premium parts he's suggesting measures better (lower in distortion/more transparent). That would at least be a start. And of course, an additional subject is whether "even better" would be audible. But he could at least start by showing some objective evidence.
I don't take the evidence of his merely claiming to hear differences in some other gear as very reliable: that type of "evidence" is presented for literally every dubious audiophile tweak anyone ever dreamed up. So some objective measurements would separate his claims from all the other audiophile anecdotes.
To be clear, it has never been my intention to persuade anyone by sharing my experiences (or “making claims” as you call it). Anything I have ever posted
Sure, that's fine. But..
1. People like fleshler is clearly making claims he thinks I should be ready to accept.
2. Whether you overtly mean to persuade anyone, any claim is still a claim, and it's legitimate to counter any claim. For instance, if you spend $1,000 on an audiophile USB cable to replace a working-to-spec cheap USB cable, and you write about the wonderful sonic differences, you may say you aren't trying to persuade anyone. But many people take those as persuasive, or real data points, and they are influenced. It's worth pointing out that there is no good technical reason the expensive cable would change the signal. That's just adding another "claim" or other take, so people reading are free to ignore what you wrote, or ignore the counter-claim, or both. Nothing wrong with various views being expressed.