Isn’t that the fun of this hobby always striving for better sound.
That's what people aways claim to begin with. But once you show them how much their gear performs like crap, they move the goalposts. Then it's no longer about performance, but all about the crappiness being enjoyable for one reason or another. And if you show them that an "improvement" has absolutely no chance of doing anything audible, other than what you get through perceptual bias, it gets even worse. No goalpost moving, just straight up denial.
The hobby is about a lot of things. Most of the fun comes from dicking around and experiencing things, whether they be real or not.
Actual performance, more often than not, takes a back seat.
A year or so ago anyone who told me electrical would make a difference I might have considered a bit touched. So I upgraded to # 10 wire and audiophile receptacles. Quess what something changed. Now if I told you bigger sound stage or more clarity you would probably say great imagination but it wasn’t that. My speakers that never had much bass suddenly had a lot more. Thought my sub was on but it wasn’t. Got some buddies over and without saying a word they noticed the improved bass.Now maybe you can’t measure that but I sure as hell heard it.
Suspect #1: Expectation bias. You didn't say anything to your buddy, but your body language showed excitement, and through the Clever Hans effect his mind jumped to one of the things that people automatically find exciting; bass.
Suspect #2: While doing the upgrade, you inadvertently moved something in the room and changed the boundary reinforcement of the speakers. You actually did get more bass at the listening position, but it had nothing to do with the wire or receptacles.
The wire and receptacles aren't even suspects. They were nowhere near the crime scene and have a bulletproof alibi.
