Have you ever thought it would be cool to have a stereo reviewer come to your house?

If you’re convinced your system sounds wonderful, then it does.

-1 Validation

If you’re convinced your system sounds wonderful, then it does.

yes, but then how do you justify tweaking it? 

I’ve always been curious how my setup stacks up against the kinds of systems these reviewers hear all the time.

Chances of getting invited to a reviewer demo is slim to none- most won’t welcome strangers with their distraction to the review. Even if you do manage to join a reviewer, the particular gear may not be to your liking.

A better alternative may be to demo gear at audio shows like AXPONA or high-end audio stores.

jalian, the simple way to determine whether I am correct or not is to read my book. There you will see the back ground, the system building, that I did in order to reach my conclusions. 

Respectfully, you may think you are selecting cables thoughtfully, and that can be done by being guided by opinion and advertising. However, without using a set of cables, you have no idea what the intended sound is, what the cables are supposed to so. Mixing cables is precisely a guess, not a directed activity toward knowingly making the system sound as you wish. 

I do not expect hobbyists who have not worked with sets of cables to agree. It is difficult for many to conceive of the benefit of such activities apart from having the experience themselves. As a person who has done the system building, the comparisons, I am not suggesting, I am telling you what works and what does not work to purposefully advance an audio system. Mixing cables does not direct a system to better sound because you have no baseline for what the cable is supposed to do.

In my book I discuss that cables are the most disdained component of a system, for audiophiles, reviewers, manufacturers, etc. routinely disregard the intent of the manufacturer to use them in sets. In arrogance, these people presume they know better, how a cable will perform aside from ever hearing it as the manufacturer intended. Thus, they have no idea what the cable is supposed to do.

I have more to say about this in the book, including other reasons why it is important to use sets of cables in comparison.  

I have strong opinions about many aspects of system building, including break in, isolation products and other tweaks, ABX testing, etc. I have no problem with a person holding a contrary opinion, but my principles are formed by actual system building, which yields quite different results than the received wisdom of the community. Audiophiles who go by the common methods and received wisdom of the industry and community typically build worse sounding systems. They could have much better sound, but their methods inhibit system advancement.