I don,t Understand ????

At the risk of repeating what others have perhaps already said above, I think we all understand quite clearly what's going on with cable companies. It's greed. The mark-up on some cables is in excess of 1000% (or even 3 or 4000%). The manufacturing costs of the Synergistic cable Evo mentions above is probably less than $100 for materials and labor, and if it's more it isn't much more. These cable manufactures would have us believe there is some black art to cable termination. It just isn't true. I've been terminating my own cable for years and there is nothing to it. It takes me less than half an hour to terminate a pair of interconnects. Most cable manufactures DO NOT make their own cable, but have it manufactured to meet their specs, and then terminate it with their shrink wrap, connectors etc. They would have us believe they pull their own cable. Audiophiles have been buying into this cable hype for too long and as long as there are those of us with more money than sense, or the need for the latest "status cable," then you can expect that they will keep charging these kind of prices. In the words of J. Gordon Holt, cables are nothing more than passive tone controls. Yes, they can make a small difference in the sound of your system, and yes some may sound better in your system than others, but they sure are not worth what some of us are willing to pay. And with few exceptions there is not that much new technological inovation in the cable business. My advice is to buy used on sites like this, and if you really want to avoid the high prices select those cables that are a little dated and not the most in demand. Then take the money you have saved a buy something that can really change the sound of your system....like a new pair of speakers....or a preamp. And if you've never done so, take off the cover of your amp or preamp and have a look at all the parts and workmanship that go into a good design. Then ask yourself how this silly six foot pair of speaker cable, or one meter length of interconnect could possibly be worth what Synergistic and others like them charge for a bit of metal and plastic.

Tswhitsel, that was a beautiful essay. I think and hope you are right. If so, it solves alot of problems for me. I have printed this out and pinned it up near my computer. Any time I am tempted from now on, to venture forth on another 'cablequest', I shall read your essay a few times over. Soon, if I am lucky, I won't even make an attempt, your essay will have me so well trained. If this works, I am not sure I can ever repay you. My gratitude will be enormous. Just imagine the savings in the first 6 months alone. . .

Thanks, your friend forever.
Chris

Guys, don't you think there's something underlying behind all this? It seems like everyone thinks that the audio manufacturers are "gouging" everyone, and that everyone knows someone that knows someone that can make his own cables for $.50 and wow do they sound good. If that were the case why do we buy these high-end amps, CD players, and even cables? Because they sound great! We love shopping for price but ultimately don't we buy with our ears? We cannot blame a manufacturer like Synergistic for not offering a "free" service on a thick cable, so they make a separate pair -for the audiophile to hawk on AudioGon and make a profit?!? Everyone knows everything makes a difference, from the termination technique to the spades used and the solder involved - why does everyone think it's so easy? I have had great success with Synergistic and I even took advantage of their trade in program and got 80% back for my used cables - pretty generous. I have always had great service from them; and I realize that they're not a non-profit organiation. I'll go back to them because I love their product and had good service. Let's not take things out of context, and lighten up.

Hey guys..I am a cost analyst for a semiconductor and let me lay this out for you. Based on Brieve's post and his estimated time to cut/terminate/solder of about 30 minutes, I am assuming that Synergistic would take about the same amount of time or even less, but less assume 30 minutes for simplicity purpose. Let's also assume that the materials will cost ~$100 to be a little exagerated (solder, new terminations, and etc.). This leaves $2500 ($2600-$100) as labor. If you do the math, this means that who's ever is assembling the cables makes about $5000 per hour ($2500/.5 hr). This is outrageous if you ask me!! I am starting to think the Synergistic high cost is more of a deterant and its put in place perhaps to influence you to buy new cables rather than reworking old ones. What do you folks think?

To put some substance behind my anger(as someone put it). I worked for a Wire and Cable company where we sold speciality cables to the Automotive, Steel, Hi Temp. cables you name it. Many of the cables where of specail design, exotic materials like Teflon, ERP, Hypolon, Silica, Silicon ect. And I have been through most parts of the Wire making process. And guess what just like everyone else someone made are cable for us to are spec's. There are only a handful of wire and cable manf. AIW, BIW, Royal, Carol, Alcatel and a few others. I could buy 14 gauge Teflon insulated conductor and cable jacketing MIlitary Spec'd for 7.00 a ft from my competitor if I ran out. When Teflon was extremely expensive a few years ago. (The boys at Dupont know we like Teflon Cable and they stick it to us) Now if you goto XLO technical paper on Cable and pricing, they say 6N copper is 200 times more expensive as reg. wire. And Teflon is really really expensive too. But they forget howmuch copper and insulation is in a 1 meter interconnect? an Ounce or 2? the rest is filler, mica, glass? We had cable made for us penny's on the dollar. To put it in prespective.