...Its not that hard to simply question a claim, especially with the countless information on various different forums from all over the web.
Is it bad that companies sell BS stuff and make false claims? yesss
...but i think the consumer takes a bigger fault for spending the 20grand on speaker wire just because of some companies claims..
From Dictionary.com-
"A deception deliberately practiced in order to secure unfair or unlawful gain."
It's not a matter of whether the fraud is successful, it's the act. Sure- people should educate themselves but how many of us buy things that we don't bother to verify just because what is claimed sounds reasonable? We read claims that cabling doesn't make a difference, complete with charts, formulas and testimonials from experts in the field. That doesn't qualify as us having done it, we just read that someone said the results shown are true. It goes both ways- we either buy, or not, based on what we read and in some cases, hear or see but that's not educating ourselves as much as trying something out although that's sometimes the only test possible/necessary. How many times do we need to make a decision that will be based on someone else's recommendation because we don't want to know everything about something?
Sales used to be made by overcoming the objections of a customer, based on their perceptions and existing information before price became the biggest factor. Deep discounts were done mostly by people who couldn't sell in any other way and was generally avoided because every seller knew that as soon as everyone sells for less, nobody will make much money. When a seller would resort to false information- lies, if you want- the rest of the dealers, and sometimes the whole industry, would make it known that they weren't happy about it and try to get the offender to stop. Some areas of the audio industry have degraded to the level of used car salesmen, IMO.
Caveat emptor isn't new but when it was coined, the products weren't as complicated. I would prefer facts were used for this kind of thing, not mystery and bullshyte.
Cable sellers are like the guy wearing the white suit in 'The Outlaw Josey Wales' selling the elixir of life and we need to be more like Josie and Lone Watty- Josie spit tobacco juice on his suit and asked how well it works on stains and Lone Watty asked what was in it and when the salesman said it had various ingredients, he told the guy to drink it himself.
