Question for cable/wire naysayers.....

+1 on not all ears being equal.

Consider something from a different domain: smell.

There have been scientific studies of people coming into a test room and either smelling something unpleasant or not smelling anything at all. It runs at about a 50/50 split.

The human nose is capable of detecting a certain bacteria in "corked" wine at a level of about 3 parts per billion. I don't think this is instrument measurable yet. That's a pretty sensitive instrument.

A good sense of smell can detect up to about 10,000 unique smells. Most people are in the 4000 to 6000 range.

In my view, these differences in one sense raise lots of questions about other senses, including hearing. I've gone back and forth on this topic with cables, sometimes convinced there's clear difference in cables, sometimes not. Recently I compared some DH Labs Q10 to some Monoprice Nimbus 14 AWG cable, and after a number of close listening tests, decided that they sounded the same to me. But there's no way that I can conclude what any other cable does or doesn't sound like based on these results, nor what anyone else would think after doing the same comparison.

Most definitely, YMMV.

The point about where to spend on audio is interesting.

Most of us have limited budgets for these things, so what has the biggest ROI when spending for audio improvements? It is sometimes said the top 3 things affecting sound quality are: source material, speakers, and room. Suppose you have great source material, excellent speakers and an appropriately treated room. Where should money go next for best ROI? My choice (in order) was:
- AVR / processor + amp with whatever room correction software it brings to the party.
- Source electronics (blue ray players, streamers, even TVs if they use the audio return channel)
- Cables

While cables came in last place, it doesn't mean they aren't important. But for me, they don't "move the needle" as much as other audio investments, and they got a lot less of the budget.