I am quite convinced Peter was serious about his findings.
The upmark on the (re)sold items is remarkable though. I guess he needed to provide for his family. Those who fell for the nonsense should be the ones going into a straitjacket and deserve to have their money taken from them.
Fortunately for the buyers placebo is real and it would have seemed to work to some of them.
Placebo within Hifi is sometimes yummy. It's nice to fool yourself. All these DIY for example. A lot is certainly very good but own cooked food tastes best. And there is absolutely nothing wrong with that because home-cooked food tastes best. If you experience it that way, that's how it is.
The crux is more when you objectively say that my food is the best in the world. Okay the comparison with food may not be the best because food has so much to do with taste (literally)
Although it is clear that consciously knowing that one is deceiving oneself, that it is subjective, may not make it easier to create that illusion. However, hifi, sound reproduction is just a small reflection of, for example, live music. It's an illusion.There is so much about Hifi that is governed by psychology. Which of course makes it even harder to keep the objective and the subjective apart.
However, sad are expensive snake oil products, sad for the wallet that is. Throw the money in the lake.Nice for Peter's wallet per se. He seemed to be a damn nice, bizarre and funny man. He probably did not want to hurt anyone, to deceive anyone,.. more the opposite, I think.He probably really believed in what he was doing.