A couple of years ago I displayed at the New York HE Show (Audiophiles) with Parasound (C1/JC1-2 ea/A51) and Bohlender/Graebener (R52-4 ea, Center/210 sub) using a Pioneer entry level DVD/SACD/DVD-Audio player.
The second day I came in early to get the room squared away and playing a CD thaat I had made thatr AM on Music Match (128k rate I think).
As I was cleaning people started to come in. By about the 4th or 5th song the room was full and everyone appeared to be enjoying themselves, I decided to take this oppertunity to promote the rooms product.
I started by describing the Parasound units and the BG speakers. I finished up with
" and the source that you listening too is the Pioneer $150. no excuse me $125. open box DVD player from Circuit playing an MP3 CD that I made this morning".
Two guys in the front row got up (in somewhat of a huff) and stomped out, one of them saying something about me trying to make fools out of them. At that point I became pretty much convinced that without true side by side comparison most people are very happy with just about any decent sound (even the Golden Ears).
Richard Schramm (Parasound) and Fred Yando (B/G) had walked in just as this happened when the room cleared about 15 minutes later Fred was still laughing about it. Freds the guy that ran the true ABX amp tests in the late 80s, early 90s when he ran Kef that proved that even the high end Amp designers could not pick their own product out when compared to a decent receiver played at the same level.
In fact I think that the only reason he likes me is that I have a strong contemp for cable snake oil.