Who thinks $5K speaker cable really better than generic 14AWG cable?

I have the Supra 2.5 and 3.4W speaker cables and they do have a wonderful sound to them, albeit at the expense of some detail and higher end info (shimmer, presence and decay). Don't get me wrong. In the right system they can lull you into la la land. 

That wonderful midrange and succulent bass comes with a hint of smearing which masks some of the detail I mentioned. It's not much, but enough for me to look elsewhere. Tonian Labs speakers are internally wired with them as are the Clearwave Duet 6 monitors that I'm presently using. Neither one lacks in the treble (with the Tonian Lab TL-D1s the clear winner: that Raven super tweeter is among the best out there) so I can't figure out why being used as speaker cables they do what they do so it goes to show that there's more going on than can be explained.

There are no absolutes, save for the Zu Event SC which consistently perform better than the rest that I have in all areas and they are a Litz design of copper and silver plated copper. There's something about them that just sounds so right, and I wouldn't have dreamed of paying their full asking price and instead, got them at discount since they were superseded by a newer line.

All the best,
Nonoise

Silver isn't always bright.  My Ocellia Silver interconnects are certainly not bright sounding.  And neither is my Audio Note SPx speaker cable.

The bottom line is you just have to listen to different cables yourself and reach your own conclusions.  Don't rely on dealers or reviews or some poster on a forum.  Try different cables in your own system and if you find an inexpensive cable that sounds good to you, great!  But don't assume that all listeners will react the same way.  

I have absolutely no doubt that the cable pundits speak the God’s only truth as THEY see it or THEY experienced it, i.e. Cables do not matter

Ok..... fine ..... no quarrel or disputing their experiences and resulting opinions, and I would not even try to challenge their points of view in any way.

But that nay-sayer subjective opinion is also absolutely no basis for any pontification expanded to a blanket generalization as fact or circumstances.

To wit, Similarly, here is the 180 degree opposite counterpoint argument as witnessed by the several thousand independent witnesses to the exact opposite effect that cables do matter , and the experiences of these masses in a large public audio expo venue was considered sufficiently profound to the extent that it was so reported in a quality magazine by an audiophile hobbyist reporter.

http://novo.press/taves-consumer-electronics-show-2014-now-we-have-a-ces-north-part-2-by-george-de-s...

Nordost

I had a chance to sit in on a couple demonstrations in the Nordost room, giving my feet a well deserved break. I’m very familiar with the benefits of high quality cables and use a full Nordost Heimdall 2 loom with my reference two-channel setup. That being said, I always find the Nordost demonstrations to be an “ear-opening” experience. Michael Taylor from Nordost demonstrated the significant sonic benefits of replacing an OEM cable with a Nordost model – in particular 1) a swap of a single USB cable, from OEM to Nordost Blue Heaven ($250/2m), to Heimdall 2 ($500/2m) and; 2) a swap of a single RCA interconnect, from OEM, to Blue Heaven, to Heimdall 2, to Tyr 2 and finally Valhalla 2. Along with convincing the audience in the room that cables DO matter, I’ve now got the bug to upgrade.

THE POINT

I was there at the TAVES 2014 expo myself and concur with the conclusions of the mag reporter .I found the same result with A-B shootouts of many contenders and pretenders ranging from cheap to expensive in my own system.

 Ok..... So what?

These cable war posts are just a tiresome, never ending, oft-repeating, and purely conflict incubating opinion troll forum Posts that are never going to be any kind of influence to either camp.... full stop. ....each side and their experiences and resulting experiences are vastly different with no basis for either side to claim victory.

why?

simple.... as already highlighted in a prior post, the pros and cons of high end cables are entirely system dependent,

IMO, the question is not, as you posited it, who thinks an expensive cable is "better" than a cheap cable?  The question for an audiophile is, can you hear a difference between cables?  If there is indeed a difference, then one of them may very well sound better to you.

I recently compared two relatively expensive cables, both at a dealer and in my room, and the difference is obvious and easily heard.  One is Cerious Technologies Graphene Extreme speaker cables, and the other is Douglas Connection Alpha 12AWG OCC Speaker Cables.  Now, the GE cables are composed of silver, copper, and graphene, while the Alpha 12 cables are made of Furutech FS-Alpha OCC ≒12 AWG conductors.  The GE cables immediately present a wider, more open sound stage, with more highs and with more clarity and detail.  The Alpha cables immediately render more bass slam and warmth.

Now, the question of which is better is entirely up to the listener.  I like the slam of the Alpha cables, but the clarity, sound stage, imaging, and vocals of the GE cables is just addictive.  I'm still evaluating so as to be able to soon make a choice.

It all gets very complicated. Results one gets with a particular cable or interconnect are system dependent, and dependent on the composition of the metal conductor, whether it’s silver or copper, the purity of the metal, the dielectric employed, whether it’s stranded or solid core, shielded or unshielded, whether the cables are broken in properly, whether the system under test is broken in properly, whether the system is error free, who is doing the listening, whether the cables/interconnects have been cryogenically treated or not and last but certainly not least whether the cables or interconnects are attached in the proper direction.