I went through a cycle of investing heavily into cables, and deinvesting. I had a 10.000 usd value of cable system (Nordost valhalla ic and pc, eldrod pcs, siltech lsc). Now I had cables made of solid core copper leads as pc and ic and goertz veracity mi2. Their total cost is about 500 usd (new price). While I was building up my cable system, I always heard improvement which justified the horrible price for a meter or so cable. Now, I think, that maybe I lost some small fraction of frequency extension, but I have a tonally more right soundprint. There is no rule what you could establish, so much influenced this game by unkonwn factors, like personal taste, wealth, equippment-sinergy. None the less, I think, there is two rules important: 1) buy used always, and than you could easily get rid of cable which once you thought was the most important investment of your life. 2) What is important is to put the amplifier-loudspeaker synergy right for your expectations. Once that is right - at whatever price level - than you dont really need invest into cables. Cables is used - at least I used them - for shifting the tonal character of the system by emphasising treble, midrange, bass etc (what ever you percieve as a factor to need to make better), and rationalise as increase of resolution (which is to a certain extent, but maybe at the price of supressig other elements of music). One, you found the right sinergy between you speaker and amp, you dont need anymore such band aids. Still, if one has money still could buy nice audiophile cables ...
