Why pay so much?

this thread is specifically about speaker wire and the OP mentions $70,000

who thinks that you should spend more than $10k on speaker wire to improve the sound in your system?

who thinks you should spend more than $1k?

and mea culpa, I have kimber on mine, but the dealer threw it in when I bought my Maggies and I'm too lazy to swap it out for zip cord

randy-11

I used to work in 94107, that's by PacBell in San Francisco. The guys at Monster Cable used to come in all the time laughing about their new "Turbo" this and and whatever wonder marketing scheme they could come up with. Of course it all sounded the same. That was, what, 25 years ago and nothing has changed. There is a guy I went to High School with that has had a High End  shop forever. One day I was there talking to him and these guys came in complaining about how some megabuck cables they had bought were "Too bright". He gave me a look like it was time for me to get lost while he tried to finesse the know nothing types that had more money than brains.

Now everybody has a right to spend their money in a fashion that they see fit. It's nobody's business, not really. The Diamond industry for instance makes zillions selling what is a rather common mineral through tight control and marketing. HiFi marketers have every right to fleece a public begging to be taken. The market is there after all.

That doesn't mean that those that point out the obvious are somehow misguided or "trolls".

I use zip cord myself. I've tried lots of fancy pants cables in the 40+ years
that I've been doing this . That covers many hundreds of amplifiers.
Imagination is a hearty part of this hobby. Imagination is good.

So is realism...

Time for the moderators to step in and
(1) simply lock down this crap thread and similar crap ones. If they do not, it's identification by association - full stop.

Really, are we so insecure that every dissenting opinion should be stomped out like the first zombie in an apocalypse?  

While I couldn't care less what others spend on cables, and I am all about capitalism and pricing based on what the market will bear, I agree with the OP that some cable manufacturers have elevated their product and brand to the point where owning their cables approaches more of a validation of social standing than a good value.  But hey, that is simply considered good marketing in many other industries.  People will vote with their wallets so why worry about it?

One correction to an otherwise good post:

HiFi marketers have [some] right to fleece a public begging to be taken... but that ends when consumer protection laws are violated.

In truth, we are buying high priced audiophile cables precisely to annoy funaudiofun.  Looks like it's working!