Skeptical Audiophile Challenge

Skeptics are sometimes accused of being too critical of religion and not critical of other things. Not true -- skeptics have been in the forefront of efforts to debunk multi-level marketing and other fraudulent advertising, junk science, phony psychics, and quack medicine. And here's an interesting example of a skeptic debunking another kind of bullshit that is being sold to the masses: audiophiles who are told that seven thousand dollar speaker cables are somehow worth it. The James Randi Educational Foundation is offering a million dollars to someone who can prove, in a double-blind, scientifically controlled test, that these astonishingly expensive pieces of audio equipment are materially any better than equivalent high-end cables sold for under $100. So you see, it's not just religion that comes under the fire of rationalism. There's all kinds of nonsense being sold to a gullible public, at premium prices.