That would surprise no-one. That's exactly why this forum continues to grow and thrive, as this is one of the very few places where people can come, expecting the advice they get is based on reality and not on storytime.
That big audio world out there is welcome to refute the base-line position of this site, which is that there is nothing magical in audio other than the music itself, and competently engineered, competently chosen components are going to be nigh unto impossible to differentiate under controlled testing conditions.
Here is an excerpt from an interview with the founder of Stereophile, J. Gordon Holt:
"Do you see any signs of future vitality in high-end audio?
Vitality? Don't make me laugh. Audio as a hobby is dying, largely by its own hand. As far as the real world is concerned,
high-end audio lost its credibility during the 1980s, when it flatly refused to submit to the kind of basic honesty controls (double-blind testing, for example) that had legitimized every other serious scientific endeavor since Pascal. [This refusal] is a source of endless derisive amusement among rational people and of perpetual embarrassment for me, because I am associated by so many people with the mess my disciples made of spreading my gospel."
https://www.stereophile.com/asweseeit/1107awsi/index.html#:~:text=Do you see,spreading my gospel.
I could stand with less of the derisive amusement expressed by some of our members to be honest, but when someone shows up spouting the standard nonsense, while being generally insulting and condescending while *not* flexing his credentials (which unfortunately around here puts him in the kiddy pool), that's where the posts go.
Sorry if this is all a surprise, but that's kinda how it goes.