Is it all in my head??

waltertexas

That listening experience sounds totally awesome.  Reminds me of when I got a private demo of the MBL flagship system.  Quite head turning!

Though I’m curious about this:

—-“After experiencing that, it is now my view that everything matters and that there is no end to this obsession.”

You mentioned you were an engineer.  I’m wondering how you determined from listening to that system that “everything makes a diference.”

As an engineer you would understand the importance of isolating the contributions of one part of a system vs another to determine what any particular part of the chain is contributing and to what degree *if any* it is contributing.   So I’m just wondering how you believe it follows from listening to (I presume) a system full of gear you are unfamiliar with that you understood the contributions of every bit to know “everything makes a difference.”

I hope you agree this is a reasonable question to ask. (?)

" I am an engineer" is probably your biggest potential blockade to enjoying hifi. Try just enjoying the improvement and can the need to know why the improvements occur.  

The power to your system comes to it through hundreds of miles of wire owned by the utility company, but what wire you use in the last 2 feet will materially change it? Does this 2 feet of wire "add" something or "subtract" something from the power that enters your house?
The electricity then enters the internal wiring of your pre-amp/receiver and this addition/subtraction remains intact?

Yes.

Have a buddy play 10 songs for you blind.  Ones that you’re intimately familiar with.  Play each song twice.  Once with the upgraded cord, and another with the stock cord.

Pick your favorite.  If you somehow pick the upgraded cord even 75% of the time as your favorite, well then you’re either fairly lucky or truly can tell the difference.  My guess is you’d guess correctly about half the time.