It's nice to see the site founder express some skepticism about high end audio tweaks.
I'm pretty sure I go even further than you do in my skepticism
Personally I find it impossible not to notice the similarities in how many audiophiles (and reviewers, and high end manufacturers of certain types) come to their beliefs about tweaks, with any number of pseudo sciences and dubious beliefs, be it alternative medicine, or any of the claims one would find at the local psychic fair. I'm not therefore saying that all declarations about the differences between cables, or the effects of "tweaks" in high end audio are false. But rather, the mix of dubious technical explanations with an almost purely subjective vetting method creates a subjective free-for-all where "everything makes a difference" (exactly what one would expect if the effects were mostly subjective).
For instance, despite years of claims by manufacturers and audiophiles that isolation tweaks/feet/racks alter the sound of components like CD players, pre-amps, amps etc, not once have I ever seen measurements presented showing any change to the output signal with isolation vs without isolation. E.g. if isolation cones/feet under a CD player or pre-amp or whatever, actually alters the sound, it's altering the signal at some point and this should be measurable. I'm not talking simply about measuring some reduction in vibration - e.g. if you have a CD player on sufficiently squishy or abortive material, and you apply some level of vibration around the player, I'm sure you could measure less vibration with the CD player on the feet vs off (I've measured such differences myself when making an isolation base for my Turntable). Rather, the claims are that isolation feet/devices actually change the SOUND output of the source component, or amp/pre-amp. In which case it makes sense to be asking questions like "what level of ambient vibration would any such device usually encounter in the first place? Or if it is vibration created by the speakers, what level of vibration must the equipment in question be subjected to in order to show up as altering the output signal to some audible degree? How is this threshhold of audibility measured and demonstrated? And then, what type of measurements demonstrate that the isolation tweak in question reduces the *audible* vibration effects to inaudible levels?
I don't recall ever seeing any of these things demonstrated in any qualitative manner. (If someone has a link to such demonstrations, I'd love to check them out).
Same with racks or whatever vibration control application we may want to look at. It just seems to be taken for granted in much of the audiophile world that "everything makes a difference" which is just what you'd get if you leave interpreting the results only to the realm of the subjective.
Again, this isn't a claim that tweaks don't work; it's just a point that many seem based on dubious claims to begin with, and we get nothing but anecdote as "evidence" for the results. You get mostly some technical conjecture....and then anecdotes as "proof" it works. Essentially same method that fuels any number of suspicious medical nostrums and other belief systems.
Unfortunately just voicing one's own skepticism is usually seen as party crashing, and one often becomes under attack because this is seen to question the very experience of the audiophile and..."how dare you!"
Just adding my own thoughts to the mix.
Cheers!
