Exactly. I’ve been at this for a good long time doing both setup and repair on some pretty expensive stuff. I don’t even want to guess how often I’ve made significant improvements in stability, hum reduction, etc. by pulling out the shyster cables and putting in common cables that are manufactured to spec, rather than spectacle.
But, strangely enough, I often find myself butting heads with people who just can’t be bothered to learn their way out of bankruptcy or just plain don’t care. High End systems are almost always built to impress rather than perform. I simply don’t understand how someone could sink that kind of money into something without knowing the first thing about how it works.
Over the years the people I deal with have gone from arguing over bias points, speaker placement, etc. and slowly devolved themselves into “You press this button and music comes out.” … really, it’s actually tragic.