Always the same, cable threads are a contentious subject with the believers and doubters. What you say Clay is true, but like Pete says above, there does seem to be a difference. I don’t have a super system like a lot of people on here do, I have an Innuos Zen Mini / LPSU / Rega DAC-R into 102/HiCap 180, but I have been trying our different cables etc and I do here a difference. Not night and day but all the same every improvement adds up. I am using Audioquest Pearl ethernet cable mainly and Catsnake 6A to my Innuos and a refurbished Cisco 2960 switch. I could here the improvement with this against the standard Cat 5 and TP Link switch I was using before. The cost of this upgrade was minimal really. This is against what, a £500 for a Naim power cable, or over £1200 for Super Luminar cables. To some that is no problem, to me that’s more than the cost of my whole system. In the end the only person who has to like the sound of your system is you. Music is my escape and puts me in a happy place. If you perceive a difference and it makes you happy then what’s wrong with that. No different to paying £20,000 + for an amplifier or £8000 on a power supply, silly money to me but I don’t begrudge anyone spending this if it makes them happy and can afford it.
I have been surprised recently with using different power and ethernet cables, switches and interconnects etc, with relatively small outlays. There is nothing wrong with different opinions, it what makes the world interesting.
Outside of this forum, Naim gets its haters and lovers, to me once discovered I have enjoyed the SQ of Naim equipment for the past 30+ years, I have heard other systems but always come back to Naim. My Olive gear is outstanding VFM and I recently had it serviced by Class A, now singing a wonderful tune. To me with HiFi there is not so much good and bad SQ it’s just different and thank god people have different tastes. Would’t the world be boring if there was only one make and one sound. What would all us geeks do with their time if there wasn’t cable threads to entertain us.
Best wishes.