cables are they worth it?

Well, for what it's worth, I'm currently just getting underway with a complete system overhaul/upgrade from equipment that is decidedly more mid-fi than what you had listed, the important bits for the purpose of this discussion being:

Pioneer Elite VSX-82TXS
JBL Northridge E-80 L/R Speakers

As part of this process I've been working with a great local dealer who was kind enough to loan me a Cary DVD-8 universal player along with a pair of 1m Harmonic Technology Truth-Link ICs (Retail ~$400 IIRC) so that I could audition them in the context of my already familiar and well-known setup.

I decided to do some A/B comparisons with a pair of ~$45 Blue Jeans LC-1 cables and another pair of generic radio shack/wal-mart cheapo cables that had been sitting on the bottom of a drawer for god knows how long.

To say the least, I was extremely skeptical that I'd notice any kind of significant improvement at all, especially using the rest of my current gear.

Well, I'm not done auditioning things yet, but on the first round of comparisons using a handful of SACD and DVD-A discs, I have to admit I was wrong.

The difference between the Harmonic Technology cables and the bargain basement ones was very noticeable, with a very pronounced improvement in high and middle frequency reproduction, much lower noise floor, and just a bunch of other qualities that my limited grasp of kitschy audiophile terms won't allow me to effectively convey in writing.

Comparing the Harmonic Technology to the Blue Jeans cables resulted in differences that were certainly far more subtle than those I found in comparing to the cheapo cable, but they were certainly there and noticeable, just far less pronounced.

If I had to put things on a relative scale from 1-10 right now, with the Harmonic Technology Truth-Links being a 10, I'd have to say the Blue Jeans LC-1 ranked a solid 8, and the cheapo cables a 2 or 3.

Long story short, my revised opinion after this evening's listening session thus far is that if you're using bargain basement cable, investing the money in some higher quality, solidly built ICs is worth it, but whether or not it's worth it to make the jump from a $50-100 set of ICs to a $400+ one really boils down to how important it is to you and your budget to get that much further.

I'd have to agree with several of the other posters in this thread, though, putting that money towards an amp or other hardware will probably get you more bang for your upgrade buck.

As with anything else, if YOU can't hear the difference it's a waste of money. If everyone around you persists in raving about the Emperor's new clothes, that's no reason for you to pretend that he ain't naked. Listen carefully, rely on YOUR perception, and make an intelligent value judgment.

"Cables are they worth it?"
Yes - keep the Cardas. A really great inexpensive interconnect for around $130 is the Cardas Twinlink.
I'm using all Golden Cross, which is my favorite, all bought here used on the 'gon.
My advice - Keep all your equipment but ditch the pre and power amp and save up for some really good amps.

Thank you for all the advise, I think I will hang on to my Cardas interlinks for and save for a nice amp (2nd hand). I know this this the wrong thread but do any of you have experience with Symponic Line amps? Also thinking about buying a tube or SS pre amp and keep the Rotel power amp (RB-1070) for now. There are so many options that for me it is sometimes difficult to see what would be the best option.

All other advise it welcome, I have been in the audio hobby for about 5 to 7 years now and there must be lost of people out there who have a lot more experience then I have. feel free to mail me if you want.

In short, no - an $800 interconnect is ridiculous. Likewise for a $50 power cord. I am sure someone would sell an $800 doorstop also - because it will "just hold the door open better". THere is one huge advantage to expensive cable and power cords - it allows for large profits. Good old Belden cable or any other reputable big name manufacturer will work just fine. You can terminate your own interconnects for that matter. Look at the cables used in other areas of electronics that either deal with low level signals or feed power to critical equipment. The power cords on ventilators are nothing special and they keep people alive. The interconnects on biomedical research and clinical equipment are also not particularly special - I worked in that field for decades (background is EE). What you are sending between your preamp, amp, source etc is just information - it isn't even in a form that is all that difficult to deal with - it's rather high level (certainly not in the microvolt range) the frequency range is not difficult to deal with, you don't have dc offset problems. Don't you think that information that determined patient treatment would use $800 interconnecting cables and expensive power cords if there was a reason to. (Some manuf did use lo leakage pwr cords for electrosurgical units - but I doubt that you are going to use your amp for any surgery in an OR)If you are worried about induced noise, what is important is whether you have a balanced connection or alternatively, a properly grounded or common driven shield as the case may be. That doesn't add any significant cost. As to a power cord - there is just no reason to not use any power cord of the correct wire size. A much more important area to consider is providing a good ground for your equipment.