I thought the OP might actually benefit from hearing from someone who has quite rationally decided to spend >$10K on a piece of wire and >$100K on all the cables in my system
Firstly anyone with any sort of listening experience can appreciate that cables do sound different (note not necessarily better or worse, just different). If you doubt this then using anything other than the manufacturer's stock is a complete waste of time for you. In the case of my most expensive cable purchase (8' speaker connection) I listened to wires between $15K and $70K and chose the cheapest, it sounded best to me in my system and, surprise surprise it also seemed best "value for money"
Secondly the simple "either/or" of cables or other spending on other items such as room treatment or component upgrades is bogus. At this level of spending you should be using extensive and carefully selected room treatment - acoustic treatment, cables and isolation (stands, footers etc.)
As an aside don't you hate the glamor shots of one NYC dealer who shall remain nameless who parades installs of multi $100K systems into NY apartments with acres of glass and bare walls and no treatment in sight?
Most importantly the comparison of cable vs component upgrade is equally bogus. The reality is components at this level and up (and arguably at all levels) demonstrate the incremental improvements the right cables and other accessories can deliver. To give a specific example a DCS Paganini stack ($50K) sounds great out of the box with the stock cables but over the years I have spent $30K+ on BNC, AES/EBU and Power Cords all with great benefit -- and still have other steps to make. Yes I could have gotten a Vivaldi DAC for the same spend but each incremental step gave benefits I could hear and enjoy, and all of the cables are transferable if/when I do get that Vivaldi.
So in conclusion for me at least cable upgrades do give valid returns in the context of an appropriately set up system especially as they meaningful improvements at relatively low per unit incremental cost - often much less than a comparable component upgrade (especially if cables are bought in the secondary market or at deep discount dealer demo as the majority of mine were)
Firstly anyone with any sort of listening experience can appreciate that cables do sound different (note not necessarily better or worse, just different). If you doubt this then using anything other than the manufacturer's stock is a complete waste of time for you. In the case of my most expensive cable purchase (8' speaker connection) I listened to wires between $15K and $70K and chose the cheapest, it sounded best to me in my system and, surprise surprise it also seemed best "value for money"
Secondly the simple "either/or" of cables or other spending on other items such as room treatment or component upgrades is bogus. At this level of spending you should be using extensive and carefully selected room treatment - acoustic treatment, cables and isolation (stands, footers etc.)
As an aside don't you hate the glamor shots of one NYC dealer who shall remain nameless who parades installs of multi $100K systems into NY apartments with acres of glass and bare walls and no treatment in sight?
Most importantly the comparison of cable vs component upgrade is equally bogus. The reality is components at this level and up (and arguably at all levels) demonstrate the incremental improvements the right cables and other accessories can deliver. To give a specific example a DCS Paganini stack ($50K) sounds great out of the box with the stock cables but over the years I have spent $30K+ on BNC, AES/EBU and Power Cords all with great benefit -- and still have other steps to make. Yes I could have gotten a Vivaldi DAC for the same spend but each incremental step gave benefits I could hear and enjoy, and all of the cables are transferable if/when I do get that Vivaldi.
So in conclusion for me at least cable upgrades do give valid returns in the context of an appropriately set up system especially as they meaningful improvements at relatively low per unit incremental cost - often much less than a comparable component upgrade (especially if cables are bought in the secondary market or at deep discount dealer demo as the majority of mine were)