why do people feel the need to buy expensive cable

Yup! We are way past sensible. I will admit it. We are willing to pay so much more for small improvements. If it brings you joy. Why not?

No doubt....there is a lot to be achieved with different (and possibly better) choices of components, speakers, cables, etc...not necessarily the more/most expensive of each. The biggest problem I see is generally that someone will come out and say "you aren't really experiencing great sound..." or "you are really missing out if...." (you don't have what I have....) in any given category. That's all horse^&$% frankly...there are many great offerings out there that make people happy. I've never understood that really but then again, many of us don't shill for other factions or manufacturers!

Back to part of my post above....what does it really matter what someone spends their hard-earned money on as long as they are happy???? But then again, there are people in the world who would have us all categorized into nice and convenient little groups and boxes/labelled (akin to Brave New World, Divergent, etc.., etc.., etc..., dictate how we think, what we believe, what we wear, etc.....) based upon their assessment that their view of the world/society is the right and best one...

Calvinj: Ditto on the ROTFLMFAO aspect of the thought that Mike L's room just has to be missing something without a full loom of Tara GME! Guess I'm missing out too since my Kool-Aid glass is friggin' empty(!) , oh well,...guess I'll survive :-)

And agreed,...we are all friggin' nuts anyway!

We are willing to pay so much more for small improvements. If it brings you joy. Why not?

Until the next fix? I guess "joy" is relative and personal, but is it really the reason, or result? Looking back, does your current system bring you any more joy than the high school or college system you used while listening to The Who, Allman Bros., Santana, or whoever, in their prime?

Mitch2, excellent point. It's something I don't think most audiophiles can deal with.

The latest "Stereophile" has Micheal Fremer describing his experience with some of the better/best Tara cables. It seems their top model had to be re-engineered because they weren't an improvement over a previous model. He brings it up to point out that it's not all about price, but actually about what one hears. The reworked cable ultimately, in Fremer's opinion, easily bested the previous model. I don't remember the exact prices but the new cable was north of $40k and the previous model was around $25k. Small but important improvements. There's a sound logic to this way of thinking, but at what point is it aural masturbation?