I understand that not everybody can visualize what a log scale really means, after all dB are not linear they don't even really have a unit because it's a ratio. but we use them to discus so many different subjects, sometime positive, sometimes negative, sometimes it's a dynamic range, sometimes a loudness level, sometimes a voltage and often all of the above. and when everybody keeps arguing about some values beyond -90db like in the farce that is 16 vs 24bit audibility arguments, it's understandable that people would assume those magnitudes to be easily audible. add marketing to all that and people go from being unclear to getting misguiding or plain false ideas put into them. so I really don't blame those who have a hard time visualizing the magnitudes we're talking about sometimes.
but anybody can find some player where the volume is displayed in dB instead of %, and fool around to experience what is -30, -50, -80, -110dB below their usual listening level. it's not the same as noises at those magnitudes while playing the music at normal level, but it's a start to get an idea of how loud those things really are. if after doing that and reading just a little bit about auditory masking, the person still decides to believe that -100dB stuff is what's ruining the soundstage or making the sound unnatural in his music, then I doubt any explanation will ever work on him.
meanwhile, I at least, need evidence of things happening before I come to change my mind on said things. and claims from sighted tests aren't going to be even anecdotal evidence anytime soon.
I can't tell people what to do with their money, but somebody who would be ready to invest a few hundred dollars into a USB cable for the sake of improved fidelity, should really consider investing into at least a nice soundcard to be able to measure a few things in his/her system. that way instead of hitting our chests to decide who wins, we could maybe get recordings and measurements of the signals coming out of the DAC with different cables in whatever conditions that resulted in audible changes for the user. it's only a start but at least it's something. and for the user, the soundcard can be a tool to check many more things in practice instead of relying on audio myths and marketing. I've been doing just that with a cheap Scarlett 2I2 and have tested many things, most of which ended up being vastly irrelevant to me and my playback system. but at least I know.
no luck for -110dB noises, that's like the limit of the device with nominal gain setting, so it might be a little too low to measure on that particular ADC depending on conditions. after all the 2I2 was only made for people to record themselves singing and playing music ^_^. we'd need a better soundcard or an actual measurement device to go below with confidence.
