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You have completely missed the point, which......

I thought was blatantly obvious. RS sells wire that transmits signal? Gee, thanks for that bit of audio wisdom. Do they sell pieces of plastic with magic quantum dots which they claim makes cd's sound better?

The point is that as opposed to Cardas wire (and countless other audio products/parts), which at the least is GUARANTEED to fulfill its main function -- transmit signal -- the IC guarantees absolutely ZILCH. So far it is 100% subjective, and all explanations for its efficacy and mode of operation have been shown to be either bogus or unproven guesses. Some claim to hear obvious improvement, some claim to hear nada after employing the IC. To my knowledge neither John Curl, Kait, nor "degreed physicist" Clark can provide any indisputable evidence that it does anything whatsoever.

This is in contast to many tweaks whose effects on sound are of course subjective, but which are guaranteed -- and can be proven -- to do *something*. You may prefer a Shunyata line conditioner to a Monster conditioner in your system. You may feel the ad copy for both is bs. But plug your components into them and they'll get electricity -- guaranteed. Though there may be dispute about which characteristics of wires and line conditioners are most important for "good" sound, differences in electrical characteristics resulting from using those products can be measured. You may think ad copy for Feet of Silence, Aurios, Ceraballs, myrtle cubes, Herbie's footers is full of bs and exaggeration, and you may prefer one over the others due to perceived differences in sound. But they'll all at least provide some guaranteed functionality (supporting components), and I believe there is a means of measuring degree of vibration/energy absorption. None of this applies to the IC.

Its of utterly no concern to me if you purchase 100 IC's, feel you got a bargain, and are convinced that all your cd's have been transformed into spectacular sounding discs by quantum dots. I have never ridiculed Wellfed (for ex.) for buying/using IC's, and it has no deleterious effect on me if you choose to believe every word Clark Johnsen says and buy every tweak he's recommended in his entire touting "career". By the same token, I see nothing wrong with Austin's negative and cautionary view of products for which there is zero guarantee, zero proof of functionality, highly dubious (if not outright lies) explanations of how it works, and which are 100% subjective.


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