Is anyone willing to entertain the idea

Reality is only one person's opinion and/or perception, those who claim to know objective reality are perceptually delusional. You absolutely cannot know what another person hears while listening to their system. I just find it kind of curious that even amongst those who claim they are in posession of an objective reality regarding perception of sound there is such a variety of equipment owned. It seems to me that if I were of the belief there was an objective 'reality' of sound perception, and I knew that one person who posessed that knowledge I would purchase the exact same equipment for my system. I would be perfectly content knowing that I had an objectively 'real' system.
While I understand the claim is for only a 50% delusional reality rate, the above argument is still valid. Which 50% (or is it some greater or lesser percentage) of perception is reality and which is delusional?
I guess in the final analysis I could care less what another person hears or doesn't hear. Good for those who can happily listen with Bose/Rat Shack, etc. and good for those who need to spend hundreds of thousands. It seems to me the contended listener is simply enjoying the sound of his/her version of reality.
On the other hand, perhaps we subjectivists are truly delusional. The path that you take to the peak of audio enjoyment is truly a dead end since it is only the delusion of faulty perception, you must realize that your enjoyment is a false reality. Now you can get really get sad knowing that your system is not really as good as you think it is. At this point you decide to just chuck it all, you simply can't be happy living in a delusional world :-)

Legitimate differences are most reliably heard at home in one's own system. And there, if I can't hear the difference between two pieces of equipment from the next room (and better yet, from down the hall), then the proposed upgrade is generally not one I am interested in. There may come a time that the improvement can no longer be heard that easily, though I haven't reached it yet. When I do, I hope I realize it is time to stop.

Not surprisingly, I find the differences in cables and interconnects are more subtle. For that reason, along with others, I am not likely ever to be a promising victim for the wire bandits.

Some buddhist/christian monks have done just that...chucked it all since it's all illusion.HAPPY LISTENING TO ONE HAND CLAPPING YALL!

Brucegel, if the one left hand is clapping in the left channel and the one right hand is clapping in the right channel, what would the sweet spot sound like? Hmmm ;-)

"Not surprisingly, I find the differences in cables and interconnects are more subtle. For that reason, along with others, I am not likely ever to be a promising victim for the wire bandits."

Just to clarify: there ARE some cable differences I can hear from the next room. This was the case when I went from Linn black to Linn silver interconnects. There are obviously many others. I may even someday find a power cord that I can hear this kind of improvement with. It just hasn't happened yet (though I admit I haven't been looking very hard).