Do You Tell Others How Much You Have Invested in Your System?

I will tell interested people where I shop. They can figure it out.

Only my insurance company.

I can purchase a couple of nice sounding cables for under $100. Room, speaker placement, component matching all matter more. Most situations do not involve throwing $10,000 in cables to get a noticeable improvement in sound. If you spend $10,000 on cables you have more $$$$ than you know what to do with. I heard a pair of $50,000  speakers, on $30,000 of Amp, preamp, and it did not sound good. He had large speaker cables about 1/2" diameter, huge interconnects.

1. The room was crummy. A bose wave radio would have put it to shame.

Very true. I have seen $20K+ speakers a foot from a wall in a maybe 10'X15' room with all expensive tube electronics and it sounded like all bass, overwhelming all the instruments. Fed by over a $20K multi-arm turntable. What a waste of $$. Who knows how much the cables cost, but I am sure they aren't cheap. They looked very thin, so maybe silver? Who knows.

I guess if you have a mid 6 figure system, $10K cables are par for the course, and you can hear a difference.

My main system cost about $70,000 with lots of gear (78s TT, DAT, R2R, CD mastering deck, multiple amps and pre-amps). My cables cost about $5,000 (7 power, 7 ICs, digital, speaker cable). My room cost $150,000 custom built for listening. (You can see my list on my profile). If someone just throws money at an audio system, it is highly unlikely to sound good. The equipment must have synergy and be appropriate for the room. It has to be set up correctly. Some basics have to be followed to extract great sound. Good sound can happen with lesser cost systems/simpler equipment such as an integrated amp, or self powered speakers, streamer or CD player. Analog and digital separates require much more thought. Proper placement in the room and on adequate stands for the equipment are essential for the best sound.

Spending $10,000 on cabling indicates someone can afford it but no indication that the buyer knows what to do with them. For a few $100s in cables, (even cheaper Monster 300m original ICs) and a Yamaha CR620 can provide very good sound on the cheap but not great sound. My non-audiophile friends have modest systems even if they are musicians. I’ve set up inexpensive systems for $500 and $1000 using good quality used equipment.