Is anyone willing to entertain the idea

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).

If a Mac amp from 1965 is Stereophile class "A" today, then where are all the "improvements" that the Stereo Industry raves about each month. If each new version is "way better" than it's predecessor, how come something 40 years old is still state of the art today?
Sugden is another brands that comes to mind.

No dobut some differences are not real, mood and how much attention you are paying are under rated factors for most people. As a rule remove all 'tweeks' (including expensive cables) from you system once a year and add them back sequentialy as a test. Another question you have to ask yourself is what percentage of the differences audiophiles claim to hear are improvements? I have really gone through a few systems changes recently that while they got me listening since things clearly sounded different the changes were not 'better' after longer term listening.