Skeptics believe:cartridge makes a HUGE difference

I'm sure there are skeptics for everything out there.

I'm sure there is a fairly large consensus view out there that carts and tonearms and extent of how set up properly makes all the difference in how good a vinyl setup sounds. So not much room for dispute there. Also many acknowledged technical experts who can explain exactly WHY this is so

Not so for many other more "radical" for lack of a better term or perhaps borderline concepts that some may report as well, but theoretical support for how or why is greatly lacking.

There is a big difference between a technical solution with little science or proven engineering to substantiate it and one that is well understood by many, including "experts".

The argument that science and engineering is limited so anything is possible is often used to justify. That may be true, but in of itself basically means the odds of success are limited, so proceed accordingly.

Zd,

What I meant to say and did not very clearly perhaps is that the fact that science and engineering is limited is not sufficient to justify trying things that cannot be explained because the odds of success applying engineering principles and techniques that are well supported scientifically are fairly high while the odds of success applying those that cannot are orders of magnitude less.

So the only rational approach is to first make sure one addresses principles thoroughly first. That alone can be quite an undertaking!

I always question anyone who dwells or is biased towards merits of highly unsubstantiated claims. That should be maybe 10% or less of the overall conversation, not the whole story itself.

"Zd542 - don't worry, I don't get it either."

Well, no surprise there with Mr. Machina Dynamica, I must say.

"Your point is very clear and a good one. Personally, I feel that a lot of the mystery that lies in between what we can currently measure and what we can only hear, should be dealt with using well conducted listening tests. I get a lot resistance with that one, though. "

That's really the only practical way, though as is often pointed out, one must be careful about drawing cause and effect conclusions whenever something different is heard.

FOr example, I recently replaced some damaged standard issue power cords with other more costly ones from Pangea. I am pretty certain I heard differences immediately after each switch in terms of lower distortion levels, but they are subtle and I have to say that sometimes I am not certain, in that things sounded pretty good in this regard to start with. But they seemed to work well as designed and are well made products, so I have little reason to look back. I would probably do the same thing again for the same reasons if I had to.