Snake oil, fraud, confirmation bias


It is becoming increasingly apparent that many threads about legitimate topics devolve into one or more of the contributors here making claims of snake oil, fraud, or confirmation bias thereby derailing the conversation beyond the valid and relevant thread topic and this is getting ridiculous. For anyone here who honestly holds the position that there is snake oil and fraud in the world of Music Reproduction Systems I challenge them to prove their claims in court it should be an easy task based on the claims they make here in Audiogon  AND they will make a fortune because in the US once proven they can file a class action suit and profit enormously from the efforts of others to deceive. These people regularly claim that "there is no evidence" that things such as cables or fuses make a difference when in actual fact Audiogon is filled with evidence that these things make very real differences in Music Reproduction Systems of course those who claim fraud reject that evidence as "confirmation bias" but in absence of any documentation from them they are only repeating the claim they have made so many times that has been refuted many times here by those who have demonstrated to there satisfaction that they make a difference.   I think in actual truth the real fraudsters here are those that repeatedly make these claims of snake oil and fraud and often they have no experience to back up there claims they simply say the claims are impossible!
clearthink
Very true, Randy. The facts behind the opinion are what give an opinion weight. Unfortunately around here, facts are interchangeable with ego and it seems like if you just put enough arrogant ego behind your opinion it gets weights as if there's some factual basis for an opinion. 

I don't know where Geoff gets this idea that there are things in this universe we can't measure. We can measure black holes colliding half way across the galaxy, but we can't measure the quality of our stereo??? Whatever! I had one chump tell me that it would be impossible to measure single instrument within an orchestra. It would be difficult, but hardly impossible, and probably not worth the effort. These snake oil clowns who claim you can't measure a cable breaking in speak out of pure ignorance. The answer is obviously you can't measure what doesn't exist. People have in fact measured cables. Nelson Pass has a great article on cable which I'm sure none of the snake oilers would bother to look up. Stereophile measures almost everything they review so I'm not sure how anybody can say nobody measures anything. The only folks that don't measure things are the folks who know there's nothing to measure..... because you can measure the customer's delusions. I have to wonder if sticking suction cup dildos to your speakers would improve the sound as much as some of this high dollar hocus pocus the con artists sell. 
yes, and even without measurement, we can compare

as in a blind listening test... do it 20 times and see what is worthwhile
Dude, start with a grammatically correct/coherent argument, and maybe I'll listen to whatever the hell it is you are complaining about.
This OP is easily one of the most disturbing posts I have read recently. This fellow has the chutzpah to attack those of us who have a solid understanding of science and engineering -- and KNOW that cables and fuses CANNOT make a difference -- as snake oil peddlers.

Scientific illiteracy is strong with this one!