Yet another audiophile thread

[JazzJackRabbit]

I got a booklet today from Mapleshade. I don't know how I got on their mailing list, I can only assume AudioAdvisor or Half Price Books shared my info because those are the only two audio related outfits I shoped at for the last year.

Anyway, I took a look and saw the usual overpriced cables at $200-300 each. That's nothing new though. However, I did see couple of things that drew my attention and that I just had to share with someone.




First we have mikrosmooth.
I particularly like what MikroSmooth does for voices. Try this: listen to a minute of your favorite singer’s CD. Then apply 2 drops of Mikro-Smooth to the CD and rub for a minute. Now listen to the same passage.

If the singer’s voice isn’t immediately clearer—like you’d pulled a blanket off your speakers—I’ll refund your money. I hear lots more: low instruments (bass, kick drums, tubas, etc.) sound more articulated, less boomy. Stringed instruments have more finger pluck, more oomph. You hear less digital harshness, the edginess that plagues CDs. Video color and edge resolution improvements are equally dramatic.

Skeptical? It’s physics, not voodoo. A CD is just a massproduced hunk of plastic. Under a microscope the surface is rough—the hills and valleys bend the laser beam reading the music data. When the beam is bent, each data bit is read too early or too late. That’s jitter. Jitter causes harsh, muddy sound. The solution is to flatten that roughness using our Mikro-Smooth’s sub-microscopic ceramic polishing particles (two ten-millionths of an inch, far finer than silver or auto polish).

A bottle makes 275 CDs or DVDs sound a whole lot better—at 6 cents per. One polishing lasts forever. Unplayable scuffed discs (including games) will play again. Three polishing pads of optical industry velveteen are included. 30-day money back.

I'm half-tempted to order it and try to return it claiming I hear no sound difference...




Next we have ionoclast.
You can’t stop static from building up on plastic. Your CDs, DVDs, LPs and the insulation on your audio wires are definitely not exempt. The field associated with this static can muddy the sound of your greatest CDs or your most expensive cables. To unlock their full sound potential, you need to neutralize that static. You’ll hear an easily discernable increase in treble clarity, spaciousness, and delicacy of quiet musical details.

The most effective and least expensive way to neutralize static is a 20 second zapping with our Ionoclast. It’s audibly better than the much more expensive Furutechs, Bedinis, Zerostats, or high-powered tape demagnetizers—the difference is not subtle. Using a piezo-ceramic spark generator, our Ionoclast produces a stream of positive and negative ions to do the neutralizing.

You’ll need to zap your discs every 5 or 10 plays. You’ll hear even more improvement when you zap your speaker cables, interconnects, and power cords. And, the Ionoclast will perfectly neutralize static on your favorite LPs.

Do you demand perfectionist sound from your CDs (or superb video quality from your DVDs)? The combined effect of these three treatments is simply magical. Used together, they sound significantly better than Auric Illuminator, Walker Vivid, Disc Doctor, etc. Use our 30-day money back period to check me out.




I saved best for the end, let me present you Triad Cable Lifts
Laying speaker cables, interconnects and AC powercords on an artificial fiber carpet will immediately dull the sound of your stereo. And that’s true for all makes and models, not just our Clearview wires. Unfortunately, the carpet is a huge mass of low quality insulation (dielectric). It absorbs and smears energy from the field around the wire. The effect is pretty grim, making music sound both dulled and harsh. A simple ear-tested solution is to raise the cables off the carpet by at least 8 inches. That’s exactly what our good-looking maple Triad (designed by Marcia Bauman) does.

This sounds like something from ghostbusters...



Anyway, I can only imagine the guy's business card - "Mike Smith, Professional Bullshitter"

[Greg F.]

been there, done that---------all those other sayings.
I don't know if those things bring an improvement or not, I just know that I have chosen to not become obsessed with sound to the point I spend more time comparing capacitors, tubes, cables, etc. than I do just sitting there enjoying the music. I certainly have done things to improve the sound of my system, but anymore if it isn't frugal and quick, I am not that interested. Life is too short.

[mr. poopyhead]

you'd think audiophiles would be technical people for the most part... after all, they have to read all kinds of things about SNR, resistance, frequency ranges, THD etc... and you'd imagine that people with that kind of knowledge would have enough common sense, or at least enough grasp of basic science to see through this kind of crap...

it amazes me what people will fall for... isn't there some kind of famous quote about parting a fool and his money?

[nick705]

I guess there's plenty of people around with a little knowledge of how things work, just enough to make a snake-oil salesman's pitch sound plausible and convincing.

The irony is, they often probably *do* genuinely find that their music sounds "better" - the placebo effect is a powerful thing. That's not to say they could ever ABX the difference, of course - even if they were familiar with the concept, they'd probably either reject it on principle, or claim that their golden ears rendered it unnecessary...

[Arvo]

There're more interesting devices: http://www.musicdirect.com/product/73105 (slow link warning).

Featuring four beams, nearly twice the rotation speed and improved timing processing, the Quadri-Beam is an ultra cool disc treatment. This patented process reduces the noise floor allowing far more information to be retrieved from the disc. It also works great on DVDs, giving you a picture that is brighter, sharper, crisper and cleaner. For those of you who have never experienced the sonic benefits of the Bedini Clarifier, it significantly reduces high frequency glare and increases retrieval of information, enhancing dynamic range. Detail and resolution are improved dramatically.

Music lovers ask: What [Vivaldi] CD sounds better, this one with Karajan or this one with Kipnis conducting?
Audiophiles ask: What kind of fuses make my amp sound better?

[N7SC]

The phenomenon is called "more money than brains." And, no matter what the people who buy into this crap like to think of themselves, they are NOT audiophiles. Being a true lover of audio (the meaning of "audiophile") means taking the time and effort to educate one's self about that which they love.

PS: The cable lifts are a hoot. I have also seen old insulators from powerlines sold, at truely outrageous prices, for the same purpose. They are almost as ridiculous as Shakti stones.

Edit: Arvo posted while I was posting. I am almost inclined to agree with him about "music lover" vs "audiophile," but I came from a generation when they were synonymous. The idiot who loves his fuse is a technophile, who loves the technology, but not the music.

[yefi]

First we have mikrosmooth.
...
The solution is to flatten that roughness using our Mikro-Smooth’s sub-microscopic ceramic polishing particles (two ten-millionths of an inch, far finer than silver or auto polish).

Isn't that what bananas are meant for?

[Arvo]

Well, sorry for a bit incorrect wording. My english is mostly learnt on internet and unfortunately on the net the word "audiophile" is widely used in sense on "technophile".

In estonian word "muusika" means music and is almost native for language; foreign word "audio" is used either, but it usually means technical side only - audio devices and similar. Source of my confusion

What about fuses - I recently read a review about some amplifier (cannot find link ATM). Reviewer started with changing fuse in amplifier, what made sound noticeably better

[N7SC]

Arvo, I apologize if it sounded like I was complaining about your english. It is better than many US Americans that I speak with every day. Your point about what is important to a true music lover is very clear and good, indeed.

As for the reviewer that changed the fuse and then thought the amplifier sounded better, well. . . I have some "special" fuses that I can sell him, for a very "special" price, of course

[aristide1]

Snake oil salespeople have been around a lot longer than any high end audio product. You don't fall for a car salesmans claims easily, do you?

Keep in mind such con jobs should not hurt legitimate products, but they always do.

The other problem is recordings in general. If a product emphasizes the highs more, then dull CDs may sound better while CD's with really bad highs will sound worse. So one person can say its good and one say its bad, and both can be right. And most commercial CDs are pure crap so you can't use them to evaluate any product. Cables are often though of as not much more than tone controls.

TAS used to be pretty good at making something clear - their journalists can go on for 10 pages of detail when comparing two products than are only slightly different from each other.

Mapleshade recordings, and lots of jazz labels, are of the minimalistic approach to handling the audio signal. When you treat a signal like that you can record even a mediocre band with very satisfying results, which is what audiophile labels do all the time. At the other extreme are CDs like the The Bangles Doll Revolution, which was totally destroyed and sounds inferior to other CDs even on my stock auto CD system.

The saying "If it sounds too good to be true it probably is" was also invented before high end audio. And yet people still buy stocks per such claims. Why should the audiophile not be tempted like other people?

Lifting cables is based the theory of getting them away from very high voltage static. I usually have to ground myself before I touch my equipment in the winter time. By the way, I never listen on hot muggy days, I don't care for how it sounds.

Power conditioners are always in vogue. That's because not all equipment is as easily tainted by AC noise as other designs. Typically the designs with multi levels of regulation, literally every part of the amplification process handled separately, thumbs its nose at AC crap. Minimalist designs tend to be at the mercy of every little thing, but are exemplemary when all is just right. For this reason battery powered amps and preamps come and go, and tend to have excellent long term reputations. Here's something most people don't consider - the typical AC line carries more different frequencies than speaker cable. After all the power grid is the worlds largest antennae.

The other thing with "tweaks" is that they make a very tiny difference if they make one at all. If your system is already too compromised to demonstrate the difference that is not the tweaks fault. I would add to that something else also overlooked. Tweaks may cause a change, not said it was going to be for the better. I think I kinda already said that.

EL34s rule.

Aris

[Wedge]

*laugh*

Sorry, but I couldn't get past mikrosmooth. Whatever else the OP typed is just as ludicrous, I'm sure.

Thank you for reminding me that though I am not among the educated elite, I have enough sense to know when i am being conned.

[aristide1]

Audiophiles ask: What kind of fuses make my amp sound better?

Is this form of stereotyping somehow more legitimate than your typical human biases?

[Greg F.]

I would like to make several points:

1) people who try to improve the sound of their hifi systems through often seemingly silly practices can still love the music. Years ago friends would kid me about loving the technology more than the music. But I would point out to them that my ability to follow one instrument or voice through a performance allowed me to enjoy and understand the performance much better. Indeed, these would be people who only listened casually and owned systems where you couldn't tell how many people were singing or even what instrument was being played.

2) I have, by such things as replacing one pair of valves, brought more improvement than neophytes would imagine. Not placebo as neophytes could instantly hear the difference. You would think one 12AU7 valve like another wouldn't you? Not at all true.

3) I long ago discarded such numbers as THD distortion and adherence to a technology. I sit in front of the system and listen.

4) Money spent can sometimes have no relation to the quality of sound. You can do surprisingly well these days on relatively small amounts of money. Witness the the class T amps.

5) I am still a little obsessive. I line up my speakers with a laser. But, the laser is cheap and used quickly.

So my points are, listen to it and see how well you can get it to sound by spending little money and then enjoy it.
I build my own using JBL and Altec drivers and bottlehead.com kits.

[aristide1]

Well said Greg. The thing there is those different tubes probably measure differently as well, not a huge difference mind you, we're talking like going from 32 bit color to 40 bit color, not 8 bit to 16 bit color pictures.

I wish I had saved the issue I had read this in.

A while back Panasonic (not exactly a high end company) did some blind tests. The did CAT scans or MRI's on people listening to music. First the group listened to CD's (totally void of ultrasonics) and then to the same music recorded on a more high end device which contained some ultrasonics, normally present in music. The brain responded differently with and without the ultrasonics present, despite what science claims about that sound being outside the range of hearing. Your brain can be responding to stimulus without you being consciously aware of it.

Of course if you've convinced yourself there aren't any differences like those mentioned then there's not purpose to reading this thread.

[aristide1]

you'd think audiophiles would be technical people for the most part...

Most people would define sound in terms of frequency and amplitude. That is incorrect because it is incomplete. Sound is frequency vs. amplitude vs. time. A tone, and it's harmonics, when kept intact in frequency and amplitude alone, but changed in regards to time, sounds vastly different. The ear not only picks this up, it's much more sensitive to such changes than to measured distortions. What do we use to measure time differences? Pretty much nothing. Why? No consensus and nobody is even trying to come up with one. Amplitude distortions have been measured since the dawn of time, because that's what could be measured with the equipment that was had back then. Harmonic distortion is still regarded by some as an on or off situation, the less the better. This is an odd conclusion because scientifically below a certain percentage it is not heard (in the conventional manner). Now good designers don't obsess with harmonic distortion, they are also scientific, they go with "If it's below xx amount that's good and let's move on." They also understand with their hearing that 1% harmonic distortion that is completely 2nd harmonic is far better than .1% of a bunch of odd order harmonics that are seen on an -scope all the way out to the 15th harmonic. The problem for commercial manufacturers is they have so hammered distortion as "all bad" that they couldn't inform the public of what's happening even if they had the knowledge, which the pimply kid at Best Buy doesn't have anyways.

There's far more to the reproduction of music than we can ever imagine, so it's part conventional science and measurements and it has to be part "Damn that really sound good but I am not sure why." Why don't we actually hear that being said? What designer is going to flatly admit he's not sure what's happening? Too bad we can't remove ego's from the equation.

Does that answer your question?

[blackworx]

I've been into my hi-fi in varying degrees for years and there's one thing I've noticed of late is that people tend to shy away from proclaiming technical proficiency in hi-fi equipment, like it's the pariah brother of "just listening, man". It reminds me of a quote I read in Hi-Fi World magazine about 5 years ago (I think it may have been attributed to Ivor Tiefenbrun): "The best test equipment your average Hi-Fi reviewer can come up with is an Avo with a bent needle". What he was getting at is that so much of the industry is based around trying to quantify subjective qualities instead of focusing on what he as an audio engineer saw as 'the important stuff'.

IMHO you can argue till you're blue in the face about blind listening and how you can't tell the great from the merely good by looking at graphs, but in the end those kinds of differences are almost always subjective and they almost always lead to stuff like the quotes from the OP. Audiophiles are notoriously self-deluding because we want to believe that 50, 500, 5000 bucks or whatever wasn't spent in vain - enter stage left the snake oil salesmen like your man above and (my personal fave) Russ Andrews who'll sell you a two way mains splitter for GBP120 fnar!!

Edit: "Laying speaker cables, interconnects and AC powercords on an artificial fiber carpet will immediately dull the sound of your stereo"

ehhhh... W.T.F.!!?! LMFAO

[mr. poopyhead]

you'd think audiophiles would be technical people for the most part...

Does that answer your question?

i'm not quite sure i asked a question... but your post was informative none the less, . unfortunately, i hated everything to do with waves in physics, so most of the stuff about "harmonic distortion" is over my head... tim to visit whackypedia... i can't wrap my brain around anything that's not classical mechanics,

wait.. i do have question... you say sound is amplitude, frequency and time... isn't time part of frequency? as in, f=1/T?

[aristide1]

wait.. i do have question... you say sound is amplitude, frequency and time... isn't time part of frequency? as in, f=1/T?

You are correct but I way referring to time in regards to the spacing between different waves, not referring to the wave itself.

Edit: "Laying speaker cables, interconnects and AC powercords on an artificial fiber carpet will immediately dull the sound of your stereo"

ehhhh... W.T.F.!!?! LMFAO

Years ago 2 guys named Paul and Stan decided to build and market a preamp. They didn't have a normal preamp transformer laying around so they used one from a power amp. They made a splendid preamp. When they got ot ready for production they put in the correct transmformer and poof it became another average piece of gear. So they swapped transformers several times and clearly, even though all their formal engineering education stated the dinky preamp transformer was more than enough it was clear the bigger one made a difference. My point - The didn't simply LMFAO at the thought of something that couldn't possibly happen, rather they tried to make themselves more aware by asking themselves why did that happen. I'm pretty sure though that the nay-sayers LTFAO when they first saw a preamp with a huge power transformer. Today such power supplies in high end gear are a neccessity, not a whim. In fact the easiest thing to do to average gear is to remove the power supply and put a real one in, the differences are always dramatic.

If you go by the book all the time you will conclude that AC noise will all be shorted out by the caps in the power suppy, it's impossible to get through the PS and be heard. Of course anyone with an electronic dimmer can tell you by experience that this is not true. Most people laugh at the idea that capacitors sound different, as do resistors, and yet once you develop the proper measurements it becomes clear that you did in fact hear a difference.

I was at a crowded store one day, and people were obviously talking all over the place. One employee had just finished connecting a Rowland amp to a pair of Apogee speakers. He fired it up and, it wasn't loud it was normal level jazz. It was so stunning everyone in the place stopped dead, even the really jaded employees who had heard it all (and the claims that went with them.) The interesting thing about the Rowland amps are they have input transformers, which are rare on tubes, and non-existent on solid state amps.

Lots of people think all speaker cables sound the same and that all you need is a little extra copper like Monster. They LTFAO when other expensive cables are used. Hey, not my fault that complex impedance doesn't show up on a Radio Shack ohm meter. I can take 2 identically built cables, use copper in one and silver in the other, and Helen Keller could hear the difference.

If a Rebecca Pidgeon CD doesn't startle you or make the hair on your neck stand up, well, what can I say?

As much as I dislike the snake oil peddlers I actually have a more intense level of feeling sorry for the self convinced nay-sayers. In fact I sent the link of the prior high end audio thread to Mike Femmer and he felt sorry for most people as well.

There's no British Hi-fi press of any sort worth reading. They are all somehow related to Julian Hirsch. The problem is, is that dis-information is more damaging than no information. Unfortunately chasing the home theater crowd has dramatically lowered the quality of American hi-fi journalism. A tragic loss, which is why after 3 decades of subscribing I am letting all my hi-fi mags lapse. R.I.P.

[Cerb]

*yawn* There's a cheap point of diminishing returns, always.

Whether it makes a difference or not, there's a point, that can be very early on, after which you will not get as much performance for your money as you can get more music to play on that equipment.

Try to get some understanding of what is going on with the system, and make decisions based on that. There will be silly cables and pastes as long as there will be get rich quick schemes.

Now, I have some Dire Straits albums I just got that need listening, and some live Sigur Ros...with a no-name USB cable, DAC who's maker recommends that you ditch their PSU (it's audibly that bad), unregulated linear from-the-junk-bin power adapter (I've been procrastinating on building this stuff like nobody's business), IC cable from a no-name TV tuner card (another thing I mean to build), and $35 cans straight out of the 80s. Oh, and it will get SSRC and ASRC resampling applied, and use SPDIF before the real DAC chip is hit.

I'll just revel in my music recordings, and leave people who think that a paste will change the noise floor of their CDs to their own devices. I have no doubts there are many things I could spend much money on that would improve what is coming out in many ways (in fact, why listen to CDs?), a few of which I have indeed heard, myself; but, "how many albums does it cost?" "Too many."

[aristide1]

There I go again, hitting the quote button when I meant to hit the edit button. And I can't undo it once I click submit. Sorry.

[Scoop]

The first one's just CRAZY

Would I ever rub something on a disc? NEVER.

[blackworx]

I'm pretty sure though that the nay-sayers LTFAO when they first saw a preamp with a huge power transformer.

Comparing between transformer design/utilisation and the carpet thing goes completely counter to your argument. The former has years of experimental and comparative knowledge behind it, going much further back than the 1970's. Few people would argue with the wisdom of those in the know. Plus, never mind choosing the right one, transformer design itself is a discipline few people ever truly master. However, to say artificial fibre carpet ruins your sound and to merely STATE that, using pseudoscientific language in an effort to get people to believe you, in order to sell some overpriced lumps of wood, is a completely different thing.

As much as I dislike the snake oil peddlers I actually have a more intense level of feeling sorry for the self convinced nay-sayers.

As do I, but there are limits. Admittedly, my LMFAO response to the carpet blocks was uncalled for - I shouldn't have just dismissed it out of hand like that as it's almost as bad as Mapleshade's unsubstantiated 'your-carpet-is-munching-your-sound' claims. I say almost because whilst I give my opinion freely, Mapleshade on the other hand wants your money

There's no British Hi-fi press of any sort worth reading. They are all somehow related to Julian Hirsch.

And that would be because the man was inherently wrong about everything and the insistence that hi-fi gear should at the very least be well designed and engineered before trying to draw subjective comparisons is somehow flawed, would it?

To brand other audiophiles as "self convinced nay-sayers" and a lot of very capable, knowledgeable and passionate journos as "not worth reading" is going a bit far. Most people are open-minded about new equipment, as are the journalists who review it. In the end we all WANT something to come along which makes our spines shudder and hair stand on end with those opening notes, sending us off on a voyage of rediscovery through our entire record collection. Any reviewer worth his salt is going to listen to gear for weeks or even months on end before putting pen to paper - regardless of what the lab results say - and they will search for that elusive tiny improvement. If it's there, you can bet your bottom dollar they will write about it. Who knows, perhaps Mapleshade's cable lifts will get rave reviews left right and centre and become the next big thing; somehow I doubt it.

[aristide1]

The power transformer comparison was meant as just something met with a lot of speculation and only that. Bob Fulton was the first to claim that speaker cables sounded different. You should have seen the reaction at the time, perhaps he's a better example.

I bought a Sony tuner per comments I read in the British press. It's was flat and lifeless new and after months of burn in it remained that way. Yes you're correct I should not have categorized all British press as bad, but certainly all that makes it to the US, and Borders has a huge magazine selection. Now if you have your own version of TAS then I apologize for the oversight and how often do you see that in print? And here even that is not what it used to be, hence my dismissal of the US press.

It is possible for speaker cables to act as an input by way of the feedback circuitry. Not likely but possible. I actually agree with you, the carpet thing is highly unlikely, but I have seen other highly unlikely changes that clearly change sound, and not necessarily for the better, just change.

Your description of what a reviewer should do is very good, but advertising casts a shadow a doubt over everything. TAS used to have a policy of accepting ads only from dealers of products, not the manufacturers, but it doesn't anymore. So when I said the British press had nothing to offer, I was not singling it out, not that this reason is any excuse, only a further explanation.

My point about describing nay-sayers is that they are self convinced and use whatever to maintain that. It's good that you aren't like that.

[aristide1]

The first one's just CRAZY

Would I ever rub something on a disc? NEVER.

I would if it evaporated and left zero residue. You can't just wipe fingerprints away, they smear. Do I "treat" CDs? No.

This area of marketing started with records. The stamper was treated with a chemical so that the vinyl did not adhere to it. It really should be removed before the record is played, but obviously few practice such record treatment.

There's also a device that will grind material away on CDs so that they are not out of balance. Ummm, yeah OK it's possible a poorly designed transport may not deal with wobble well, but the fix should be the transport, not the CDs. Do I grind material off CDs? Hell no.

[aristide1]

OK let's get into it. The hi-end stuff for most people is laughable. I agree. I realize though I must accept the bad with the good. There are some bright and wonderful people in high end who are in it because they love what it does. There are others.

There are many that use hi-end audio much the way others by cars; its for status. It's for showing off. It's the snobbish version of bling long before bling was used to describe it. Everybody hates audio snobs, the rich, who dismiss all others by any means but usually by price. These people buy the $50K speaker revision 1.01, and then trade it in next year for some other $50K speaker, as if their prior choice turned into a dog overnight (because the press said so), but even trade in the speaker for the same speaker revision 1.01a (the designer felt the change was so small it didn't warrant going to 1.02). The problem is this bunch keeps the industry alive, and if you're a store you need to cater to these people, so they blow off Joe Average because Joe may buy one piece of gear from them and actually keept it a while. Simply put hi-end is just too niche for the most part to stay afloat otherwise. That's the downside. The snob creates so much churn that his used equipment is traded in at a huge loss and that's OK with him. That's the upside. His equipment is well cared for, if it was even used. It has all the qualities it did when he bought it for far less money. I get huge bang for the buck but I freely admit the industry, and thats what it is and has to be in order to continue to sell and to create new designs and products, will never survive on the likes of me. I buy new stuff as well, especially anything of a mechanical nature. CD players just keep evolving too quickly, almost like PC video cards, to bother buying used and turntables are rare, timely, and costly to repair. Downtime is a cost as well.

I do resent, err am very annoyed with, being considered a snob because of what I own. That conclusion is based not on my actions, but on the appearance of my equipment. That's your decision to conclude that, not mine. The equipment has to look that way. It's been proven from a marketing standpoint that gear that doesn't look the part doesn't sell. Even designers with huge passions need to sell, they can not escape reality. They complain that their costs can reach 40% for cosmetics alone. That's hugh given the typical parts quality found in hi-end gear. These guys don't spend pennies on resistors and capacitors, they spend dollars - per piece - to get it right. They too, have to, because again it's a niche market. The cosmetics issue should not surprise anyone. If a Corvette performed like a Corvette and looked like a Pinto would it sell? Only to a few shrewd buyers. I always liked sleeper cars myself, but nowadays, more than ever, it's about bling.

The reason I am not a snob is that I buy to listen. My purchases have been gradual and constant, what you see was not purchased on a whim. I earned that money and made tough decisions. How you came to the snob conclusion bothers me. (I'm pointing the finger at society, not anyone here.)

As always the point of diminishing returns rests a lot on income level, and less so on the performance level. For me the E-Series Mercedes is beyond my point of diminishing returns, but increase my income 10 fold and it's a very viable car. Clearly it does things any car I ever owned could not even address, much less do. I live withing my limits. Some do not, I've seen people who own nothing who own Krell, much like a teenager who owns nothing but a Trans-Am. Its all he has and it defines him. Whether that's passion or single-mindedness depends a lot on where you stood at that age.

A friend of mine is currently enjoying his mid-life crisis. He went out and bought a Trans-Am. A used one, but well taken care of. It actually looks pretty cheap compared to the latest ones, but at $3K it was a justifiable whim purchase for him. I could do the same, I could buy a used Krell KSA-50, if for no other reason than I have never owned an amp that was in the "arc-welder" category. I think about it with a smile, and I may do it if I run across a Mark II, which I haven't seen in years. Now if I bought the amp instead of the old Trans-Am does that make me a snob?

[Wedge]

Yes.

[Wedge]

Just kidding, of course.

[Arvo]

aristide1, you mix everything, including known, possible and unlikely factors. And you feel obsessed that many people find some "audiophile dogmas" laughable.

Hi-end stuff itself is in no way laughable, but there often pop up some claims or opinions, which are.

Maybe it would better to analyze, what factors may affect sound (device) output, what not? Relying to fact (opinion?) that "some things are not measurable, but audible" is not scientific, it is rather dogmatic. Even human hearing can be reduced to physical laws, although not easily and not everything is clear so far.

For example:

Like all SPCRes know, power circuitry design is very importat part even in digital world, of course it affects analog audio in much wider extent. It is not difficult to explain, why preamp is working better with quality and powerful PSU - most probaly weak PSU can't deliver millisecond bursts of power, needed for opamps (or whatever active amplifier componets) to achieve needed switching speed (in V/s).
But changing fuses cannot change power circuitry chatacteristics, so won't different fuses affect electromagnetic properties (sending or receiveng EMI). If even PSU had be designed so badly that original fuses acted like antennae, then no replacement can change this; complete circuitry redesign would be needed.
Power cord is very unlikely to have any effect on sound, unless device has very badly constructed PSU and/or cord is plain defective.
I don't think high-end equpment contains badly designed PSU.

Or tubes (or actually any active components) - of course they affect sound quality. Tubes contain electrodes, made from nonideal materials, which are affected and deformed by changing elctrostatic forces, what in turn causes lower harmonic distortions. For different tubes distortions are different, what changes sound colourisation.

Capacitories (and resistors in lesser extent, depend on their construction) also affect signal; but these components are usually not easily replaceable.

Disk treatment for good disks is nonsense. Neverthless, I'd use polishing/filling fluids or pastes ("microsmooth") for restoring scratched erroring disks. But even on that case I would not expect sound becoming clearer or colours more saturated

Cables itself change sound output, this is clear. Cables with amplifier output stage and speakers build very complex analogue circuit with frequency-dependent impedance, with possible wave effects and with possibility to receive EMI. Insulation materials will somewhat change cables HF characteristics, above MHz frequencies - I better won't estimate, does that affect sound somehow or not. I think that not but effect is not impossible either.
But carpet on what they're lying cannot affect sound. Well, static electricity buildup may be problem and this static can cause some sparkling (although this will be audible without audio system turned on); claims like "artificial fiber carpet will immediately dull the sound" is nonsense.
But - give any reasonable physical explanation to that and I will change my mind

[aristide1]

Power cord is very unlikely to have any effect on sound, unless device has very badly constructed PSU and/or cord is plain defective.

In RF-riddled areas there are many additional areas of weakness as compared to living in the middle of the country.

aristide1, you mix everything, including known, possible and unlikely factors. And you feel obsessed that many people find some "audiophile dogmas" laughable.

Question first, you can always dismiss later. First question - Those ceramic insulators they sell don't raise cables 8 inches off the ground, they do or don't work?

According to you if I dislike how my system sounds on hot muggy days that's all in my head.

[Arvo]

aristide1, you mix everything, including known, possible and unlikely factors. And you feel obsessed that many people find some "audiophile dogmas" laughable.

Question first, you can always dismiss later. First question - Those ceramic insulators they sell don't raise cables 8 inches off the ground, they do or don't work?

Don't.

According to you if I dislike how my system sounds on hot muggy days that's all in my head.

Not exactly. Speaker internal components may have different thermal expansion coefficients (mechanical) and temperature related electric properties, so are amplifier inner temperature and thereby components properties different. Muggy weather may change speaker elements stiffness and speaker case (eg if it is wooden) properties.
Three or four possible effects on speakers (what are the most important part in audio system), one on amplifier (next important). I'd surprised if all these combined do not alter sound at all.
I forgot your listening room properties - they can change with weather too.
And hot and muggy day makes your feelings different anyway

In total two electronical factors, four mechanical and one psychological. No one is related to expensive technical widgets, btw.