Are audiophiles still out of their minds?


I've been in this hobby for 30 years and owned many gears throughout the years, but never that many cables.  I know cables can make a difference in sound quality of your system, but never dramatic like changing speakers, amplifiers, or even more importantly room treatment. Yes, I've evaluated many vaunted cables at dealers and at home over the years, but never heard dramatic effect that I would plunk $5000 for a cable. The most I've ever spent was $2700 for pair of speaker cables, and I kinda regret it to this day.  So when I see cable manufacturers charging 5 figures for their latest and "greatest" speaker cables, PC, and ICs, I have to ask myself who buys this stuff. Why would you buy a $10k+ cable, when there are so many great speakers, amplifiers, DACs for that kind of money, or room treatment that would have greater effect on your systems sound?  May be I'm getting ornery with age, like the water boy says in Adam Sandler's movie.
dracule1
Whart wrote,

"For someone at home, striving to get the best sound obtainable-- that last 5% is often challenging and as I think Mike Lavigne said here somewhere, often makes the biggest difference once everything else is dialed in."

It’s highly probable that the remaining percentage is a long way from 5%, not to be too argumentative about it, but I’d put a number on closer to 50%. There are simply too many things out there these days that have the potential to double the performance. It all depends on where a particular system happens to lie in the overall scale of things. I know what you’re thinking, "But MY system has only 5% to go until the Absolute Sound." There are no absolutes.

Cheers
Geoff- you'll get no argument from me. In fact, the endless quest is just that. 
bill hart
It is incorrect to use % in the assessment of the sound. It is either acceptable or not. So..expensive cables are worth paying for, sometimes.
It is incorrect to use % in the assessment of the sound.
+1. I always get a chuckle when I see someone trying to quantitate sound.
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