Are audiophiles still out of their minds?


I've been in this hobby for 30 years and owned many gears throughout the years, but never that many cables.  I know cables can make a difference in sound quality of your system, but never dramatic like changing speakers, amplifiers, or even more importantly room treatment. Yes, I've evaluated many vaunted cables at dealers and at home over the years, but never heard dramatic effect that I would plunk $5000 for a cable. The most I've ever spent was $2700 for pair of speaker cables, and I kinda regret it to this day.  So when I see cable manufacturers charging 5 figures for their latest and "greatest" speaker cables, PC, and ICs, I have to ask myself who buys this stuff. Why would you buy a $10k+ cable, when there are so many great speakers, amplifiers, DACs for that kind of money, or room treatment that would have greater effect on your systems sound?  May be I'm getting ornery with age, like the water boy says in Adam Sandler's movie.
dracule1
stevecham
2,273 posts
06-20-2016 12:49pm
"The point is, if I make something for $0.01 and, based on whatever marketing or voodoo or apparent added value I effectively attach to my product, I am able to sell it for $1.0M, then exactly what is the problem here?

In my world, good for me and good for the buyer who thinks he/she got a good deal."

But the cost of materials is not the whole issue. Not by a long shot.  One ought to consider sound quality, quality of connectors, quality of welds, actual cost as used or discounted item, will it hold it's value, and physical appearance. If this is your first purchase of very expensive cables then I can certainly understand your angst.



Geoff,  I couldn't agree more. Value is what we're talking about, as perceived by the consumer, and that is often intangible and highly variable.

I too went down the expensive cables/IC rabbit hole for a few years (Synergistic, Tara, Audioquest, Van Den Hul, Harmonic Technologies and several others) and then found Mapleshade and Anti Cables, the latter brand being what I currently enjoy and for the past two years, have felt zero inclination to "improve." 
inna1,970 posts06-20-2016 2:50pmI would propose - the winner takes it all.

It's VERY GOOD phrase!

I praise ones who can convince someone to give rather than stealing. Often they're called scammers, but to me, they only deserve respect for being smarter than others.

High-end home audio industry is BIG part of such methods to convince to spend fortune on something that maybe worth not more than 10...15% of actual sale price. It's an established mechanism that made casual wealthy consumers to spend fortune without knowing what they actually have to spend to achieve same level of performance. Moreover, it makes many go nuts on constant upgrades, mods, tweaks. 

If Geofkait has a customers lineup buying his products and making money or maybe fortune, it only deserves respect.

Winner takes it all after all and it's correct!