09-18-12: CsontosActually, I cant say what others should expect regarding the OPs position, and I dont think that anyone can. I would simply asterisk the experiences he has reported with a big YMMV.
Oh come on, Al. With all due respect, you of all people here should be able to tell us what we can expect to hear and what we cannot regarding the OP's position. Remember the "b.s."? Is it appropriate for all of us to become delusional? Seriously.
As I have said in the past in many cable-related threads, cable effects are dependent to a considerable extent on interactions between their parameters and characteristics and the technical characteristics of what they are connecting. Things like input and output impedances, noise susceptibility, susceptibility to ground loop effects, power supply design (with respect to power cords), amplifier class of operation and other design variables (with respect to power cords), use of feedback in amplifiers (with respect to speaker cables), etc, etc. And even if the technical characteristics of what is being connected are known in detail, many of those effects would still be inherently unpredictable. And to the extent that there is predictability, it is easily possible to cite situations in which a sonic comparison between two cables would yield exactly opposite results depending on what is being connected.
What would be a delusion, IMO, is an expectation of a high degree of correlation between cable price and cable performance. Weakness of that correlation follows in part from that system dependency and inherent unpredictability. And if, as many here would assert (including me, to a degree that is LIMITED AND FINITE), cable effects are not fully explainable on the basis of generally recognized science, there is further reason to expect a weak correlation between price and performance. To the extent that cable effects are not explainable on the basis of generally recognized science, no one can say with any precision where the dividing line is that separates sonically beneficial optimization of a given aspect of a cables design, from overkill that substantially raises the cost of the cable but provides no benefit.
FWIW, the OPs path is not one that I would personally follow. It suggests the possibility that a multitude of small inaccuracies were both originally present and subsequently introduced, which after a great deal of time and experimentation have been made to essentially cancel each other out. If I were not satisfied with the imaging/dimensionality/holography of my system, consistent with some of Onhwy61s comments I would focus on speaker placement, listening position, and room acoustics, and probably also on upgrading components. But thats just me. The OP has found a path to success that worked for him, for which he is to be congratulated. But as I said earlier, YMMV.
Regards,
-- Al