Do you have tin ears?

Matchstikman,

There are dozens ,if not more, right here!
Before you guys start bashing let's get some things out there.

Eight yrs. ago no less an institution of health then John Hopkins Medical Research Facility stated that after age 40, on average, hearing in the frequency range that defines the "highs" we discuss can be lost up to 29%!

The evidence, interestingly enough, was much the same at the other extreme...
People my age [57] may have also contributed to the demise of they're
hearing by they're own doing, such as attending loud decibel concerts, playing headphones at a loud level and being in a work situation that had high decibel surroundings, not to mention inheriting specific traits that relate to long term hearing at birth!.

As for not hearing differences in cables, DON'T FEEL GUILTY!! If your chosen cables results in a pleasurable experience for you, STOP SEARCHING!
In a strange way it reminds me of when they used to call a person who got "stoned" easily a WUSS...Hey, he got high like everyone else, just quicker and cheaper!!...:)

Though I do think that cables can make a small difference, I don't think they are worth obsessing about. IMO, it is not worth spending thousands on cable when you can spend a hundred or two for something that sounds almost as good at worst. Your money is much better spent elsewhere in the system. Paul Klipsch famously suggested using lamp cord with his speakers. I agree on the whole with Robert Harley's guideline of spending no more than 5% of the total system budget on wire and cable, and IMO, the larger the budget, the smaller the percentage should be. Harley also suggests buying wire in the lower end of the price range of a reputable maker, which is what I did. I am thinking of trying something cheaper eventually. I have heard good things about those Anti-cables, for instance, though I have no experience with them.

As for hearing the differences, a couple of things need to be kept in mind. Many times there won't be any significant difference in quality between one brand and another. More importantly, though anytime you switch a cable out, this has a sort of "self cleaning" effect as far as the electrical connections, resulting in temporarily better sound. The important thing is to keep your contact connections clean. I use a contact cleaner at least every six months, and the result is quite audible. For me, this is the biggest difference one can make with the electrical side of things - IME it makes a much bigger and more positive difference than a power conditioner, etc.

There are certainly a whole lot of folks on this and other boards that will disagree, though, so all you can do in the end is trust in your own ears.

I agree with Azjake. It's a gift for an audiophile not to spend a lot on wires.

I for one have often pondered the irony of the average age of the ears which can afford to purchase outlandishly expensive audiophile systems.

(and yes, unquestionably, I'm sure I do.)