Thanks for this. That’s the sort of answer I was looking for. I agree re speakers. I did spend a long time searching for my ultimate speakers and eventually found them. And I can't treat the room further, which is the other major factor in improving SQ. So for people like me, who want the best SQ, all we can do is tweak the edges.
Well if you've gone as far as you can go but still want to tinker with oddball stuff for sheer entertainment that's fine. I don't think many would take issue with that.
What I don't like is that the people who are on a budget and trying to get the best possible outcome for the least possible spend - and this is the vast majority of people - are maybe being taken up the garden path with some of the products around these days. 'Keep your crappy speakers but spend £500 on a magic box of tricks or a cable'. It's just not good advice.
In my day we only had the magazines and the dealers. So we were effectively just listening to the marketing department and the salesman for advice. That wasn't saving any of us any money.
At least now with forums like this the customer can educate himself - if he so chooses. If not, then that's up to him.