why do people feel the need to buy expensive cable

Why do people feel the need to buy expensive cable?
Because you get what you pay for - same thing applies to audio cable.

Truth is though there are different applications for cables. Interconnects being one, and speaker wire being another. There is such an abundance of information - and listener testimonial - stating that in the case of speaker wire, anything other than "ordinary lamp cord" is essentially unnecessary and indistinguishable audibly. The only thing one gets in this case is more broke.

Obviously anyone can cherry pick user testimonials and find some somewhere that agree with you. Or just make it up, who’s gonna know, right? And ignore the testimonials that don’t agree with your foregone conclusions. It’s the oldest ploy in the pseudo skeptics playbook. Even better, find a PhD somewhere who agrees with you. That can be very powerful in these sorts of “debates.” Cough, cough!

geoffkait - That can be very powerful in these sorts of “debates.” Cough, cough!

Try and detect/hear the difference between ordinary speaker wire and the most expensive/exotic there is in a blind test. That’ll end the debate.

EDIT:

I hope you're not catching a cold.

Bin there dun that! When one checks for directionality of fuses he doesn’t know which way is the right way, so it’s essentially blind. All one needs to do is listen. Also if there are many fuses in the system one must pay attention whilst flipping fuses. Otherwise you could wind up the same as you started. The reason I’m telling you all this is because I realize you have no experience with this sort of thing. You just like to talk a lot and pretend. A pretend skeptic. You talk the talk but can you walk the walk?

gdhal

Try and detect/hear the difference between ordinary speaker wire and the most expensive/exotic there is in a blind test. That’ll end the debate.

No, it won’t, because naysayers such as yourself will perpetuate the debate. One cable manufacturer has offered its own comparator for exactly this sort of evaluation. Why do you think Wireworld does that? Because there are differences. And they are audible. But - and this is a big "but" - you won’t know about these differences until you actually conduct some listening experiments. That seems to be something you and others in the "hear no difference"crowd seem unwilling to do. You prefer to be an armchair theorist.