I wondered what reason might be offered for dismissing my evaluation of the L-shape, and in fact I had a suspicion that it might be your claim that I didn't use enough - that I was one of those people who required more shapes in order to hear the difference. Before I mention the other part of my L-shape evaluation, I'm going to take a moment to catch back up on some things.

• Part 1: This site was one of two offered as examples of the power of Belt's concepts. If you go to that site, the first thing you will see below the title is the statement (in large, bold type) "This page is intended to provide a tangible means of demonstrating the effects of photographs on our senses." The site is part of the discussion in this thread because it was first introduced with the paragraph below:
  
  Quote:

  And guess what? You can influence recordings as well. And the perception transfers. I've done experiments where I've Belted my CD burner (but burned the same tracks to a similar CDRW before Belting). The resulting CDs were superior to the ones made on the same (but pre-Belted) burner. Guess what else? You can hear this for yourself. Since you were speaking about "prompting the audience to go to a web site to learn about the wonderful product", I created a website where you can download edited MP3's of the recording sessions I just mentioned. Mind you, because of all the processing, the differences between the two versions are not nearly as considerable as what I initially heard. But I believe to the discriminating ear, they are still discernable:
  
  http://www.geocities.com/cico_buff/
  The site also offers the following comment regarding the negative effects of MP3's lossy compression on the sample tracks:
  
  Quote:

  Still, I feel there should be enough resolution left after all this processing to still hear at least some sort of differences beteen each version of the music track. In order to ensure more success at hearing these differences, you should play them back on good quality headphones.
  Based on all of this, I understood the six MP3 files offered on that site to be a reasonable method of listening to the effects of applying Belt techniques to a system. Had I wanted to simply dismiss these files, I could have used some mediocre earbuds and listened to the files a time or two. Instead, I listened repeatedly to all six files (both as MP3 files and as tracks on an audio CD created with Nero 6), using my main system instead of headphones because I had no good headphones available and felt that my main system would be at least as good as headphones at reproducing subtle nuances in sound. Aside from perhaps a slightly higher overall signal level from the "full metal jacket" version of Jingle Bells, I found the files to be indistinguishable from each other.
• Part 2: My MP3 file findings were dismissed because "they were never meant to be a "test" in the first place". And yet, the information that led me to try listening to them specifically identified them as "a tangible means of demonstrating the effects of photographs on our senses." If you fail to see the Catch-22 here, then so be it. All I can do is suggest that you either revise your site to identify the files as uesless demonstrations or post the uncompressed WAV files (the longest MP3 is only 60 seconds and most are only 35 seconds - toss the raw WAV files into a zip file and you wouldn't be talking about much file space at all).
• Part 3: Since my MP3 listening was apparently meaningless, I turned to the other site offered as a test of Belt techniques. Here's the first time that particular site was offered:
  
  Quote:

  If that isn't enough to prove things for yourselves, I have my own website created to allow people the opportunity to test out the theory behind the revolutionary Belt techniques, even if they are not serious about buying any of the products:
  
  http://www.geocities.com/soundhaspriority/
  I started out with two shapes, one each on my DVD player and MP3 player. I gave these nearly a week, using an assortment of familiar source material, and found no effect. I also didn't tell me wife, to see if knowledge of the shape's presence mattered. Again, no effect. This test was rejected with great enthusiasm, but that's hardly a surprise...
• Part 4: I left this one for last, since I didn't feel like digging into it until I had the den to myself for a while to do some more serious tinkering. The instructions on the Sound Has Priority site suggest that if you can't hear a difference with one or two shapes, that you should move up to a dozen. The tape came back out, and the following shapes got applied: two on the back of the DV-981HD, one on the back of the Model 990, three on the front of the DV-981HD, two on the front of the Model 990, one on the back of the SoundBridge M500, two on the front of the SoundBridge M500, and one on the top of the Model 7500. That's an even dozen. Familiar demo material (CD's, MP3's, an SACD, and Revenge of the Sith) played off and on over the course of about a day now. I still do not find any effect. This is a system that I've built up over the course of years, and that I am extremely familiar with - there was not even a subtle change introduced by the shapes.

That brings us to the present. Delius has offered us all two web sites as resources should anyone wish to conduct an evaluation of Belt techniques: Sound Has Priority (L-shapes) and Photographs as Devices (MP3 files). True, he's backed off on the MP3 files, but as recently as earlier this month it was a resource worth presenting to us. I've investigated both, and would suggest that others who have an interest in putting these techniques to the test do the same. If you find Belt's techniques to be a revelation, then I'm sure there are resources online (such as delius) who could offer you even more information. If you find the techniques to be ineffectual no matter how carefully you follow the procedures or how many times you try them, you are not alone. While we're on that subject, though, I'd like to take a moment to comment on one of delius's recent comments:
I'm not humiliated. I'm not remorseful. I don't want my time back. If I felt stupid for having taped the shapes all over my gear, I wouldn't have told anyone that I did it. For that matter, even though the shapes didn't alter the sound of my system, I still had a pleasant time listening to old favorites on my system (something that work and parenthood often make difficult, unfortunately). I'm certainly not surprised that your confrontational, insulting, and obnoxious posting style has driven others to threaten you with violence, but I don't share similar feelings. You might be trying to read between the lines a bit too hard.

I'm saddened that this forum - a place that has been a pleasant, useful, and supportive community for home theater hobbyists for nearly six years now, and I feel sure will continue to offer such a home for us for years to come - has had to endure this particular thread. We've debated everything from exotic cables to room equalization techniques (among many other topics) with intelligence, courtesy, civility, and more often than not light-heartedness. Fortunately, the rancor that has flowed through many recent posts in this thread has remained limited to this one thread, which is just one of many things for us to be thankful this holiday season. I'm off to enjoy the rest of my vacation now...