Have we lost civility and respect on Audio forums?

Exactly right ...Especially when it is done not on a statistical way with a crowd in a laboratory where the number of subjects is crux of the matter for the average results, but in a confortable living room with the owner listener own perceptive habits ...

You can quick switch with cables but that would negate what the masters learned about human hearing and how our brains work. People need time to adjust to properly ascertain what they’re listening to.

I'm a DIY guy out of financial necessity. I make my cables, out of the best Beldon or Cardas I can afford, with the best hardware I can put my hands on. I freely admit I have copied commercial maker's designs. I have recapped both of my Kenwood KD TT's, a 500 and a 550. I have built Heathkit and other (like from plans...) amplifiers...I repair my CD players, and gear, it's not just smoke inside the wires for me.

My complaint is this society's headlong rush into Orwell's 1984.... History started when you were born, NOTHING of importance happened before then, if it did we can change it (Stalin, Mao, and Che have been re-imagined as heroes? And heroes re-invented as criminals?). If you can't buy it. it just doesn't exist, or have an intrinsic value. (who had the price tag on her hat on Hee-Haw? Who's even seen Hee-Haw or heard Buck and Roy?) Dogma is knowledge, do not question the dogma (you want to be on the right side, don't you?)  I do not want to be lectured to by a someone who wouldn't recognize a JBL Paragon if it was eating his B&W's. But at the same time I don't mind being taught.  I'm sad that an old ear who can remember, let alone still use, something from the dawn of Hi-Fi (when it had to be figured out and knowledge was shared freely and joyfully...) be belittled by somebody who already knows it all, and has no tolerance for those that don't know it all, or know different, and smugly knows, JUST KNOWS that he knows it all, and you don't

phewww, I need a nap, or a time out or something...  wonder what my blood sugar is         :-)

I thought i was pretentious ego... And i am a bit for sure or perhaps more than a bit and i apologize...😁

But some beat me patronizing every hobbyist as deceptive and deceiving because we dont use only and essentially double blind test as the only factor to assess objective sound quality in our acoustic room or in our living room ... Fascinating human indeed ...

I myself affirm that improvised simple blind test are enough in our optimization process ...

I just bought a low cost pre-amplifier i dont need a double blind test to perceive immediate improvement...

Why ?

Because aural memory is associated with the body and not just the brain... Sound memory is not a book stored on a shelves... Sound qualia are associated with the body movement and reaction too because memorizing sound and producing sound are associated ...

Also aural memory is of two kind : conscious memory manifesting as clear thought and unconscious deeper memory in the body emerging as emotion and feeling...

i dont remember consciously for a long time the difference between two sounds impressions for sure , but relaxed with enough time my body and my associated emotions with the different sounds inform me on a subconcious level and i feel at ease with the sound or not ...

I dont need a double blind test as claim scottwheel with a rapid switching to feel my emotion... I need time and relaxation in my acoustic room...

I connected the low cost pre-amplifier i received today and , knowing my room/ system i felt an improvement ...

Scottwheel will call me deceived and deceiving in my review because i did not pass a double blind test BEFORE writing my review...

Some people were deceived in the past by some very costly high end products for nevermind the reason , and now they crusade against any subjective impression as almost a fraud if not verified by double blind test...

For me simple improvised blind test is enough and not even always necessary ...

Myself i was never frustrated because i never owned high end costlier product as scottwheel , save vintage one, and i always relied on my creativity not on double blind test ...

I think scottwheel deceive himself with this mantra ...He dont even believe it himself ...😊 I hope for his sake he dont believe it himself ...😁

Yes.  No.  It’s always been the best of times or the worst of times.  Everything is relative to your expectations, desires and means of participation!  Enjoy the ride and ignore the irrelevant.