Sorry if what I said irritates you, but the best guitarist, flutist, cellist or any other musician on the planet could teach you nothing as long as you have the idea that he/she really doesn’t know what music should sound like.
@jhills It is apparent you’ve completely missed the point of what I, @newbee and several others here have been making. Of course the OP knows well what music sounds like and nobody is arguing with that. But that has little to do with being able to assess what an individual component is adding or subtracting in the context of a home audio system especially if the listener has limited experience with better quality equipment. Again, I’ve played in bands for many years and have also written professional audio reviews for 16 years and there’s very little playing live music has contributed to what I need to know to review audio components and systems. Put another way, a professional musician with little experience with audio equipment isn’t in a much better position to assess or write a review of an audio component than any ordinary Joe off the street because they simply lack the experience and perspective to be able to make those assessments not having heard what better components can provide. It’s like a new versus an experienced driver — yes the new driver can drive at a certain level, but they’ll become a much better driver with more actual driving experience. Same with the ability to assess audio components, which is at the heart of the discussion here
What I am sure of is that not all with an interest in HiFi attain a place where they have become experienced enthusiasts with a broad range of experiences and a trained ear, but this does not matter, as enjoying musical replays are very achievable without developing knowledge through increased experiences.
@pindac While I agree someone without a trained ear can put together what they perceive as an enjoyable system to them, with more experience or “training” by listening to better equipment and systems that person will find the flaws in their “enjoyable” system and be in a much better position to build an even more capable and enjoyable system. And this goes back to the OP who is relatively “untrained” in the realm of better cables but blindly dismisses more expensive cables as “hyped” by comparing only cheap cables. This alone makes no sense, and being a professional musician doesn’t help if there’s no perspective on what more expensive cables can offer. That’s the ultimate and fatal disconnect going on here. We mock what we don’t understand.