Speaker Cables? why all the hype for expensive speaker wire?

Lptocd - yes, active speakers is one way to go. Not always, though. I did an experiment the other day. The 'master' speaker of my Elac AM 50 no longer drives the 'slave' speaker.  I wondered if the slave was broken, and connected it to my main amp, Atmasphere MA-1. It worked OK. And not only did it work OK, but it sounded *amazingly* much better than I have ever heard it driven by the amp in the master speaker. Of course the MA-1 amp is in another league. Even so, I was surprised. And this was even with a short lamp cord, to the speaker!

Moral; if you go for active speakers, the quality of the amplification (not just the speakers themselves) means a lot. Check the passive speaker driven by a good amp - then you will know if the internal amp is good enough to match the best the speakers can do.

As I see it, about all that should matter very much is the length, the gauge, and having a good secure termination. However, when people swap cables, they invariably introduce some collateral change. For example they tighten a connection that was loose or they eliminate RFI simply by rearranging the wires. Then they attribute the SQ difference entirely to their new, expensive cables.  

Now, what I've just stated is an hypothesis. It should be testable.  Meanwhile, Blue Jeans Cable represents roughly the point of diminishing returns for me (at $1.90/ft. for Canare 4S11, 14 AWG, unterminated speaker cable). More power to you if you can hear an improvement from a much more expensive cable with the same length and gauge as well as correct, equally secure connections. 

“@millercarbon where are you located? I would love to come by for a listen!”

Follow The Yellow Brick Road....Follow The Yellow Brick Road

Now, what I've just stated is an hypothesis. It should be testable. Meanwhile, Blue Jeans Cable represents roughly the point of diminishing returns for me (at $1.90/ft. for Canare 4S11, 14 AWG, unterminated speaker cable). More power to you if you can hear an improvement from a much more expensive cable with the same length and gauge as well as correct, equally secure connections

Now I will agree as I have conducted with experiment using my Moon 600vi and SF Olympica Nova 3. Using Transparent Cable Gen 5, Raven Audio Soniquil Cable and Blu Jeans 4S11.

all properly burnt or run in and then switched out cables and at no time did any of these cables diminish the sound quality or out right out perform the other,  to point of saying cable X is a giant killer or cable Y was worth the $800.00 more it cost.

I think if it works for than use it and if $5000 cables make you feel good then buy them.

Easy to answer. If you could toss a vibrant word salad with the same ingredients and taste qualities as the plebian described one, and you could convince people to spend 100 times more for the privilege of digesting your words, why not. There are tons of products and people who buy on hype but would run like scared chickens if a true blind test was available.
 It is a sort of religious cult where the secret keys to the audio kingdom are possessed by oracular golden ear pontiffs who disdain the idea of blind tests because mere science and physics can't hear what the "educated golden ear" can. Solipsism.