why do people feel the need to buy expensive cable

EBM clearly can afford "the best". Good for him! This means he does not get paid per word written here of course. Or if he does he gets paid a lot per word. :^}

EBM may be Donald Trump. Who knows?

Mapman,
Thanks for the response. They were upper level Transparent, so quite expensive. I tend to be one of those who is quite happy with whatever I have, just listening to the music.
Having said that, the skeptic in me was not prepared for what "wires" can do. It really was an eye/ear opener.

"Having said that, the skeptic in me was not prepared for what "wires" can do. "

No doubt, but the key word is "can". What they will actually do in each case can be very hard to predict, even with the same wire used.

It largely depends on what you start with. Not just what wire gets replaced, but the quality of the power supply portion of the unit used with. Some may be so good already that a better cord makes little or no difference. or in some cases, a power cord might serve a shielding function against RFi and/or EMI noise, but neither of those are necessarily a problem to start with in all cases.

So like most things, it all depends.

Even more reason not to drop big bucks on a wire even if you hear a difference in a demo, unless teh demo is with YOUR gear. If its satisfaction guaranteed or money back, then there is little risk. But it is a very unpredictable thing to invest in. You never know until you try at which point you and your $$$s have already parted.

A corollary to that is if a product is GUARANTEED by the seller to deliver certain results, the guarantee had best include a money back option if not as well. Otherwise, start sniffing for some snake oil.

The lower level Transparent stuff is quite good too.