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
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!

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.

What you need, BIG BROTHER to protect you?   Can't handle life in the BIG city?   Ever heard of personal responsibility?    

If you can't handle freedom, move to another country with more regulations and ONE choice.
I was talking about golf turnament not making general statement about social-economic order or defining fair play.