An interesting topic. I identified with Redkiwi's comment/question about non-audiophiles trusting their ears. I did not become obsessively interested in high end audio until near age 50, and it took me about 3 years of much reading and careful listening before I was confident in my ability to hear differences between treatments, tweaks, and components. Critical listening (in my opinion) is an acquired skill. Now, while I still like Stereophile and TAS, I don't need their opinions to pick out components or decide if a tweak is worthwhile, in other words I have learned how to listen, and to trust my own hearing and judgement. My 28 year old daughter,on the other hand, loves music and has better hearing than me, but she has not learned critical listening skills as I have. I lovingly refer to her as a "cloud of sound" person. In Robert Harley's book, he carefully differentiates between listening for pleasure and the more difficult critical listening-- sometimes they are hard to keep separate. Recently I tried out an after market power cord on my big McCormack amp (recommended my Steve McCormack). There was a big difference in music quality/character, and I was amazed-- but I didn't like it and sent it back. Not all tweaks work in YOUR system. Elsewhere in this forum, Redkiwi noted that he did not like the effect of Vibapods in his system and I respect that, but my experience with them has been totally positive. SUBJECTIVITY:) I have enjoyed all the above posts. Thanks.
"Feng Shui" and "Floobie Dust"
These titles were once used in an edition of Stereophile reporting on some miscellaneous items from a CES show. Do things like Shun Mook disks, Shakti stones, silver vs. copper wire (the resistivity of silver is only a little greater, so is it the grain structure?), power conditioners (for example, there was a fairly interesting article in the current issue of The Absolute Sound debunking most power conditioners and filters), etc., make a difference? Is there any physical basis (in terms of an understanding of the physics) for the claims made by the manufacturers?