It's supposed to be quite a debate over wire qualities, and a large amount of hotheads out there think they can just identify some $2000 dac from some $1000 dac or something. Yes, there have been scientific studies to test these theories and sadly, those hotheads make it seem as if the audiophile community is in words, "obsolete". There is a fine line though. After working for years with music, perhaps if you're a producer or a good sound engineer, there are those out there who can tell differences between lots of things in terms of audio. But if you're just sitting in your bedroom listening to music and suddenly decide your want a $2000 dac/amp, you won't be able to tell the difference. Another thing, if you do tend to work with music throughout your life, then I guess your subconscious begins to identify these small differences, because it can. But it's correctly said that lots of people do automatically defend something which they believe they support. Sometimes myths are made because the wrong people represent certain things.