How are you hearing no difference?

There are so many factors involved it’s almost absurd. You got your time of day, you got your day of the week, you got weather conditions, I.e., high low pressure system/rain soaked ground, mistakes in the system, hearing issues, among many others.

Bingo! 

Act chew ally the cupped hands improves dynamic range, especially for systems that lack dynamic range, and loudness, i.e., a better antenna, but the down side is it impacts soundstage. Once your system can perform dynamically, e.g., room acoustics treatments, you’ll discover the cupped hands doesn’t do much at all. Recordings are made with human ears in mind, not Mr. Spock’s. You’re not hearing the rear reflections since the hands block them.

Was I not the first? Ortho Ears was going to be my first product. They were based on Spock Halloween ears. Which I think is a smart look. That was 25 years ago.

Some days are diamonds some are stones. You can’t fool Mother Nature. Or Mothra.

I don’t think listening blind will do any good. The problem appears to be people don’t know what they’re listening to or how to analyze sound in comparative situations. Obviously any tests are system and listener dependent so negative results should be taken with a grain of salt.