Snake oil came first. By a likely ~ +50k years

Relativity which has held up amazingly well so far despite the most rigorous testing may one day get partially refuted. But that won't make it snake oil. Nor if the same happens to Quantum mechanics.

Science is an actual discipline without which we couldn't have these exchanges let alone listen to recorded music. Sure it isn't always unbiased, not with big $$$$$$$ and political interference at work, but some of the nonsense audiophiles are subjected to would be laughed at and instantly disproved in any undergrad faculty. 

Snake oil salesmen (cables, amps, DACs, Hi-Res purveyors, non-pro music press etc) know fully well that the claims they imply are false, unlike the shamans who may have honestly lead the way into experimentation.

Even the late Peter W Belt never claimed his products were better, (how could they be?). He claimed he merely presented them as an alternative way to listen, at a cost. Nothing wrong with that, but for most of us here I guess,  not much right either.

It's also worth bearing in mind that when it comes to audio it's one thing to say something is better technically and quite another to say that we can hear it. For example, I know that 320kbps mp3 must be better than 192kbps mp3 but I can't easily hear it. 

On the other hand I can easily identify the 1987, 2009 and 2018 versions of the Beatles White album (even when level matched).

So the next time an ad or a review, one backed by science, catches our attention it might be worth asking ourselves do we really want to pay for an expensive theoretical improvements that no human can hear?

A lot of shamanism and snake oil have no real physical science behind them whatsoever. But that has never meant that they do not lack effectiveness when applied at the right time to the right person.

Many people are ’healed’ because they think they are healed. We tend to scoff at that and see it as weakness in the patient and devious by the practitioner.

Placebo is an extraordinarily powerful phenomenon which is largely untapped in modern medicine and considered unethical in most cases. Of course it happens all the time but in ways that are not admitted by patient or practitioner and are not officially sanctioned.

The B12 shot is probably the gold standard. It is a bright red liquid given by injection and millions of people claim and swear that its effects are tangible. And yet, the science says otherwise. If your B12 level is normal, them more B12 does, can do, nothing for you from a pharmacological or metabolic standpoint. But countless patients will pay cash for it and tell you they feel terrible without it even though their B12 levels have always been normal.

And B12 is harmless as a substance.

As a new audiophile, coming from a lifetime medical background, I have a hard time believing that a lot of what is seen as beneficial or detrimental in this area are closely akin to placebo and nocebo effect. Why would we think the audiophile arena is exempt? No other similar areas are.

And in the end, if you pay big money for a dubious tweak that makes your system sound better than it ever has, who is to say that it doesn’t sound that way to you and that it wasn’t worth every penny?

Now, claiming that peach pit extract will cure stage 4 lung cancer, and whatever hi-fi scam fits that analogy, is not okay. Desperation and ignorance open the door to abuse.

cd318
Even the late Peter W Belt never claimed his products were better, (how could they be?). He claimed he merely presented them as an alternative way to listen, at a cost. Nothing wrong with that, but for most of us here I guess, not much right either.

>>>>Yeah, right. Like you know.

n80
Now, claiming that peach pit extract will cure stage 4 lung cancer, and whatever hi-fi scam fits that analogy, is not okay. Desperation and ignorance open the door to abuse.

>>>>Now I’ve seen everything. Are you high?