Hi,
I take stereophile, The absolute Sound, Part time audiophile, iiwi youtube channel, Hans Beekhuyzen youtube channel (sp ?), GR research youtube channel (a fave over here, I think) and Steve Huff youtube channel all with a grain of salt or two (all of those are more prone to emote about power cables and audiophile USB wires and such than I am willing to swallow, probably because I have a little electronics background) and I look around here to make sure there is no horrible engineering flub with a product.
Sorry it took a bit to get back to you, but you are probably just bating me anyway(a tactic here). I wasn't that anxious to get back here to read the comments of the high-horse rationalists/"scientifists" disdaining from atop Mars Hill. You guys could be more charitable. The snowflakes say, "those guys who only believe in measurements... cool... that is cool for them, it takes all kinds to fill the freeways" and move on... I see some dickish / churlish stuff from your side though. I don't have disdain for what you do here as was suggested above, but I do have disdain for the insistence, by some, that if it can't be or is not quantified by the tests you run then it is a fantasy or the result of a sound pressure mismatch (that probably is true some of the time, actually...)
There is no blind or double blind test that is worth a sh*t (in my opinion) other than you listening to something you KNOOOW and (probably need to love) on your system that has been stable for whatever duration would be long enough for you to KNOW what particular music pieces sound like on IT. The imaging, the soundstage and really subtle details. It also matters that the music even has these things. I am not talking about techno, hip-hop or most radio stuff. Songs that have acoustic insturments, well recorded vocals, even some rock like the ones I mention below...then you can hear subtle changes like streamers, DACs, amps, preamps even cables - if you know the music intimately on YOUR system. Speakers are of course a gross change anyone could hear at any time, even a kidnapped bowling alley in one of those stupid tests, but I mean the subtle things... those are not going to be able to be tested like that.
I used to buy and sell stereo gear because I love music and stereo and because it allowed me to be on a constant upgrade path while making money. I had a good system. A local dealer was retiring but still had access to some inventory. He wanted to sell me some speakers and expensive cables. I was interested in listening to the speakers, but I humored him about the cables because anyone knows that is horsesh*t. They are just wires.
Well... He put in a whole set of Cardas inteconnects and speaker cables (the ridiculous expensive ones) that were probably more expensive than my CD player, pre-amp, amp and speakers. Much to my dismay and disappointment, the sound was better in several ways. I am still disappointed by this as I am too cheap to spend much on cables. I was able to hear the difference because I had a treated room, I measured the sweet spot location of the seat and speakers with a laser. (yep, nerd). I did not move or touch anything or change components at that point for nearly a year. So when I would put on Dark side of the moon (The import Harvest CD, great!) or Rumours (the german mastered one) or some Bach CDs that were well recorded I knew EXACTLY what every second sounded like and the imaging and soundstage were like muscle memory as I had listened to them so many times sitting in exactly the same spot in exactly the same room with the same equipment. The cable change was obvious, probably equivalent to CD player change or maybe even amp change. Not as much as pre-amp. Anyway... they would consider all of this BS here unless one takes pedestrians from the mall and performs "the very good Stereo Review" test. Anyway, we all have to decide for ourselves what we hear and what is BS. I assume that is a journey. I like to think I am in the sane middle. Whatever that means.