why do people feel the need to buy expensive cable

Well, sometimes they work as intended.

Sometimes, not. :-)

It really not a need. It's a want and if you want it and you got the money you can buy it. If you have a great system you do what sounds right to you. For some people they have not been exposed to amazing sound quality. I remember when I started this hobby it was some years before I heard amazing sound. The late David Baskin of designaudiovideo in whitehouse Texas had an amazing listening room. He had great equipment and cablesIt was expensive but outwordly amazing. Rick Schultz of high fidelity had an amazing voxativ system with great cables. When you get to a certain point sound quality is supreme. Your ear becomes trained to want steak not spam. I can never get those kind of systems but I will not put substandard cabling in my really good system. I'm not justifying my own cable expenditures but I can't go back once I have heard realism and musicality and some cables do that for the owners. I think ultimately some people can do it and others can't or don't want to. Those who don't maybe they need to! Lol. Then they will understand!

The big boys with their expensive toys are getting really defensive .

11-14-15: Audiolabyrinth
My system has $24,000.00 8ft speaker cable's...it was worth the price of admission for me

I'm sorry, but that is ridiculous. Keith how can you possibly expect to hear what $24k worth of speaker cables can do with your 2nd hand JBL L7 speakers?? The last pair on US Audio Mart sold for $655.00 in good condition. Any serious audiophile would rather pair $655 cables with $24k speakers. The problem with these debates is you get doofuses giving opinions and leading inexperienced members astray.