why do people feel the need to buy expensive cable

Jimmywho gets it. 🏆

Mmm,seems like the community is coming to an agreement here.

Garebare,

I know the mark ups on cables is crazy! But even the mark up on speakers is very high. I was having a discussion with a friend of mine on what it cost to build certain speakers. (Not to pick on a certain manufacturer) but we were discussing Wilson audio. He figures it cost 20 percent of retail to build a speaker. So for an example. If the Alexia retails for 52k than their cost should be around 10k. I would say that is a very big markup from manufacturing to retail.

Mapman, actually he didn't try any expensive cables. I trust no one here actually thinks that $1K+ speaker cables are expensive. Hint: they're not. That's kind of entry level at this stage of the game. Now, if he said he tried $10K speaker cables and preferred the ones he's got then maybe we'd have something to talk about.

Hey Taters ....as has been brought out in this thread ; cables were No#1 with speakers a close second. I am experiencing this right now. I had the same cable manufacturer in my system for close to 20 years. I have / had pretty much their top of the line .....I recently auditioned another cable manufacturer goods and who some consider them as ''high fi'' or middle of the road, ( but have been around since 1987 or so ) came out with a new top of their line series a few years back and is making me change my whole approach to my system .....it finally sounds like real music .....and they are about 50-60% less on the retail side than the that they are replacing. Just goes to show - it is all about system synergy