How do you define curmudgeonhood? Is it age or state-of-mind? I'm now 69 years old, retired, and I don't suffer over-confident fools. I'm softer on more naive fools.
I've liked audio since the late 1960s, first bought a stereo in the early 70s. As life interfered, I ignored the newer audio stuff and made do with my older gear until right around 2000, when I got back into it. It was a real eye-opener at first. Voo-doo and hear-say seemed to dominate the industry. With some time, I realized that common sense did still exist in audio, but you had to look for it.
I spent a career as a lab scientist, biochemistry and molecular biology. As a young grad student, I had to learn, the hard way, how to tell the difference between good evidence and wishful thinking. No one is born knowing that. I have some favorite quotes that apply to the The Great Audio Debate:
The first principle of scientific inquiry is that you must not fool yourself – and that you are the easiest person to fool. (Richard Feynman)
It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble. It's what you know for sure that just ain't so. (Mark Twain)
This is America – everyone is entitled to his own opinions, but not his own facts. (Daniel Patrick Moynehan)