i hope you like hat
Data are data, bits are bits - the cause of cables etc having an effect on the sound, and differing with different DACs, network setup and electrical environment has a sciebtific basis, as has been explained in some of the cable threads.
A bit-perfect CD rip is just that. The difference in sound a few people say they have observed is so far unexplained, but if a genuine difference there absolutely will be a scientific explanation. There was one example on here a few months ago with with some discussion of possible causes of effect, including IIRC file format or how the metadata are attached. However with few people willing to do the necessary elimination of psychological effects, some even claiming to be immune, and with no-one in that discussion either interested or willing/able to share files with others able to look deeper into file structure, it didn’t progress.
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I do. (You know you did something right when getting bashed by both sides 
)
They deny the possibility that a better ripper can provide better sounding rips.
If so, then not because the bits differ, and there will be some unknown but explainable reason
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FR, who are these people you refer to? I’ve seen a fair few people on the forum that won’t tolerate vagueness or inaccuracy, but not sure there are many people on here that fit that rather two dimensional description you just posted.
Not to speak for FR, but I read it as referring to hifi “skeptics” in general. Seems similar to what I wrote above, we have all been told over the years by shortsighted “skeptics” that this or that cannot possibly make a difference, and then it did and even had an explanation when looking deeper. So on the flip side, skeptical objections are now often dismissed with similar but inverse shortsightedness
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It’s not a question if there is any effect at all, there is obviously, since every material in the world changes over time and under the influence of external forces. The question is if these changes are anywhere near enough the threshold to realistically be discernable by a regular person. Ofcourse there are many people who claim that it’s definitely audible, but there is a confirmation bias in most if not all of those people since they have already bought into the audiophile story, literally and figuratively.
So objectively we cannot ‘trust’ those accounts, since the more someone has paid for their equipment, the higher the chance that there is an expected psychological bias towards certain audible effects. People expect to hear the tiniest changes through their €5.000 cable or €20.000 amplifier, so as a consequence they do. This is in line with the placebo/nocebo effect mentioned by @winkyincanada.
In my country these necklaces were widely sold in the nineties to ‘regulate your body’s energy field’:
A lot of people were absolutely convinced that they worked. There was no scientific basis for their claims but they would say “I don’t know how it works but i’ve tried them, and it definitely does something”. And this were literally thousands and thousands of people claiming a noticeable effect on their health and well being. So if it’s that many people saying the same thing it must be true, right?
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When I was on an extended surf trip in the canaries a few years ago, every surf shop sold armbands with holograms in them that were supposed to improve your balance on the surfboard and in general. People tried and “tested” them in of course uncontrolled settings (similar to this video by my Vortex Hifi friends, https://youtu.be/8w9zKof9kJ4) and also ended up with “I don’t know how it works but i’ve tried them, and it definitely does something”. And not just surf tourist beginners, but very, very serious surfers who risked their lives on a weekly basis in 5+ meter waves. A few months later the fad was over and it was as if it never happened.
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A friend of mine also used to wear a ‘stabilizing bracelet’ that looked a bit like this:
They made me do the push/balance test as well wearing the bracelet and were really disappointed that i didn’t notice anything. Supposedly most of the people that did the test reported a noticeable effect, that’s how they were certain that it worked. They suggested that i probably needed some more time to get synchronized to the effect of the bracelet, and for the energy field to stabilize.
The bracelet itself looked like regular stainless steel to me. There were different versions of it, also a gold plated and a titanium one, the cheapest one was around €50 i think.
It’s fascinating to me how these kinds of things tend to make excellent salespeople out of some people. Once they are fully on board with the idea they become it’s most loyal ambassadors. Not unlike what you see in religions sometimes i suppose.
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Power Balance were the ones in the canaries, like BioStabil they earned themselves a Wikipedia page, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_Balance
(On the page it says they had to retract claims in Australia by 2010, but were going strong in the canaries in 2011)
A lot of run in myth has been perpetuated over the years by dealers using run in to counter buyers disappointment or buyers remorse.
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Another fascinating category are the bioresonance devices that are on the market:
“Bioresonance is a type of therapy used in holistic or complementary medicine. It uses a machine to measure the frequency of energy wavelengths coming from the body. Those measures are then used to diagnose disease”
An extensive list of devices can be found on the bottom of the page here, some of them look really exotic and they can cost up to €30.000,-:
What’s interesting is that it covers the voodoo aspect with a high-tech / pseudo-scientific veil, to increase it’s credibility.
Well there are even studies that the placebo effect is still making 30% of people feeling better and less pain even if the bottle says “placebo pills”. The force is strong. Of course the mind can make any cable or product sound better if you want it too, most often related to cost, packaging, material, story telling, weight, brand ambassadors (they are here too of course) etc. For those developing products there are lots of efforts spent on making a product convince you it’s great not only by the performance itself. Just look at the Morgana packaging and cable itself. Would you think it sounded as good if came in a plastic bag and the cable was less thick and pink even if the inner wires were the same? Most likely not. If the sum of all that makes you satisfied then so be it just as with the placebo pills. Just saying that there might not be any science to back it up because everything that happens is happening inside your brain.
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A lot of dealers also state that the difference, for example, between two expensive power chords is ‘huge’. Hyperbole is not uncommon.
I am comfortable that burn in is a thing. Especially where heat is involved. An amplifier being on for 100 hours, having previously spent a very short time switched on in the factory, I can accept this having an impact on the electrical gubbins. I’m not so convinced about external cables, but even there I can accept a level of change as they acclimatise to the environment humidity and temperature. (If cables really change that much, how can anyone be confident that one cable of a particular type is exactly the same as another?)
The lovely speakers I bought recently (October) have changed… as far as my mind is concerned that is 
Edited typoes
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The earth used to be flat and gravity didn’t exist, to claim otherwise might have seen you burned as a sorcerer by those who knew better…
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Certainly part of the problem
I asked my intelligent, analytical and open minded wife to read this thread and give me her opinion of its contents.
A verbatim account would be pretty much unprintable. Suffice it to say she believes we’re a bunch of sad gits who should just get on with life and listening to music!
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Sure, but the same can be said about any passion by someone who doesn’t share it
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Our current situation is different though. It can be objectively disproven that the earth is flat, but we cannot ever disprove someone hearing a difference after running in their speaker cables. That will always be a subjective claim, no matter our advancements.
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Most women talk with their girlfriends about topics that completely elude us as well. For instance if the €80 face cream with hyaluronic acid from Garnier hydrates better than the €110 retinol-infused one from Vichy.
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Hmmm…certainly not mine! The vacuous TV cosmetics adverts wind us both up equally.