Alan makes an excellent point about the fact that there's little or no correlation between price and sound quality in audio(i.e. often you don't "get what you pay for"), even in items such as speakers where audible differences do actually exist. Audio mythologies seem to require that not only do differences have to be heard in items which if correctly designed are audibly identical(e.g. players, receiver/amplifiers, wires), but that actual differences have to be exaggerated, sometimes to a gross degree(e.g. one good speaker "blows away" another good one). A further illustration of Alan's point can be found in
Dr. Toole's paper where he demonstrates, especially at p.10, how the major differences listeners reported between the speakers listened to in open view narrowed greatly when the same speakers were then listened to blind.
