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

Named after the economist who first studied it, Thorstein Vleben, The Vleben Effect is the phenomenon that higher prices effects create a higher perceived quality.  There is an entire industry of designer products offering consumers the comfort garnered from this perception.  Designer branded products are thr perfect example.  For me, the name McIntosh has continued to personifie this effect longer than any other audio company.   If their prices were lowered to coincide with manufacturing costs, people would not think it is as good, and buy something more expensive.  How much does anyone really think wire costs to make, and/or, stamp with your name?

Whoops, I included one too many words in the edit  Omit "effects" after "prices".

danvigna,
Why on earth would you use McIntosh as an example? Their products are SO much cheaper than other brands like Soulution and Dartzeel.  

@johnnyaudiogoon - Hilarious and well articulated. Enjoyed a heavy laugh reading your post.

My father-in-law (who has his graduate degree in electrical engineering from UofI) tried to dissuade me in looking at pricier cables - bringing in his educational background and “science”.

I can’t wait to offer him some watermelon with mustard. 

Acoustic Zen and harmonic technology are extremely good cables that's because they use OCC single crystal wire which is far superior to anything ofc on the market. But there are other companies that are charging an arm and a leg for OCC single Crystal AZ and HT are very reasonably priced, and all the manufacturers that use OCC single Crystal are buying it from only three places and Wan lung in Taiwan is the cheaper of the three. The other two OCC manufacturers are in Japan. So the only thing that will make a difference is how the cable geometry is designed and they're all pretty much the same whether you pay the high price of audioquest or the more reasonably priced of AZ and HT.