The so-called `high-end' of the audio industry is riddled with over-priced, under-specified products that simply do not perform as well as lower-priced equipment. Although we are entreated (by the people selling us the components) to use our ears exclusively as a measuring tool, psychophysical research indicates that our hearing system is far from infallible. The placebo effect, not to mention the desire to hear an improvement in sound after spending a fortune on, for instance, speaker cable, is rife in high-end audio.
Many of the claims made by the manufacturers and dealers are not only unsubstantiated by fact, they are wildly implausible and physically impossible. The assertion that a speaker cable is directional, for instance, is completely unsupportable by any known physical theory, and the fact that absolutely no measurement difference can be discerned between the two orientations indicates that there is, indeed, no difference. John Dunlavy, of Dunlavy Audio, has published results indicating that even highly qualified listeners were unable to tell the difference between 12-gauge zip cord and hugely expensive speaker cables in controlled, blind listening tests using extremely high quality equipment. No more need be said.
It's possible to build good equipment simply by using experience and sound theory, without spending a fortune. I have made a pre-amplifier using the Analog Devices AD797 op-amp as the source of gain. I highly recommend this op-amp, which has the best specifications available today. The parts for the pre-amplifier cost less than $100, including a commercial $50 passive gain and switch control. I make my own interconnects at less than $5 each, and use 12-gauge cord as my speaker cable. The effects of correct speaker placement and acoustical room treatment are far greater than any effect due to fat speaker cables, $1000 interconnects, special AC cords, and sorbothane feet. Save your money! Move your speakers around instead!
Check out the Usenet group rec.audio.tech, to which I contribute, for occasionally reasonable discussions on audio matters. Check out rec.audio.high-end for always ridiculous discussions on audio matters.
Here is the transcript of what transpired when I called a local TV station during a talk show about so-called `alternative medicine'. Although I wanted to call and ask the herbalist just how vitamins could help a woman's PMS, I instead opted to talk to the director of the alternative medicine program at Highland Hospital in Rochester, NY on the subject of therapeutic touch. Her reply is a brilliant piece of non-science that is truly worthy of the field.