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

Who are you guys talking to? Each other? All the guys that know better have checked out.

Dave

The cables I have span a small amount from around $100 to just over $500, including the discounts for discontinued lines. I have solid core copper, solid core silver,  silver plated copper, stranded and tinned stranded, Litz, most with terminations and a few with bare ends.

Just with that motley assortment I can tell the differences and from that I can tell that spending more can get you more. They all have great bang for the buck so I'm satisfied, even content not to spend more. That's a pittance to what others have spent so I guess there's value in that. 
:-)

All the best,
Nonoise

Bravo akg_ca!

The number of times this same theme of anti-audiophile cables/prices has appeared over the last 1-2 years alone is staggering.  There is some expensive cable that is way overpriced and a rip-off but there are legitimate entries in the high-end cable world at respectable prices that bring a personality/performance/improvement coefficient to a system that cannot be beat, or at least not with cheap wire from a commodity source.  Deaf men can hear the effects of the legitimate products out there over cheap wire for systems that truly deserve that type of investment.

Regarding the statements and implications that attempt to paint a broad stroke characterization of all audiophiles who spend on higher cost cables as weak-minded, pliable, easily fooled, etc...and somehow enforce your view of the world and your agenda as a truth that must apply to all is simply not true.  From my side I can personally recount 3 times in the last 11 years alone where (1) I ripped out an entire loom of a highly-thought of brand of  expensive power cords, went back to stock cords and determined the stock cords were more natural sounding and that as the loom of pcs had grown, a mistake had been made that resulted in accumulated house sound.  Same with 2 different iterations of a combination of speaker cables and interconnects from 2 different high-end cable manufacturers at various points. Each time I either returned to stock PCs or to very low-cost power cords, interconnects and speaker cables. There were things the low cost approach cables did not give me that I determined to live without and many that I did hear that I liked. 

I've also cut into or unwrapped more than a few cables in my time to see what's inside and realize there are a few brands out there that are simply "F-O-S!!!" and pulling one over on many of us music lovers.

I only 'went back to spend more ' because I happened to be given an interconnect, a speaker cable and a power cord from one manufacturer that are not inexpensive, but not amongst the strata of audio cables that simply cannot explain their prices in terms of any reasonable markup on cost of goods plus cost of manufacture (and R&D). I stayed with the brand in question as they survived real A/B testing (double-blind) and truly deliver what they say with a high-end, resolving system and a good pair of ears on the receiving end.

I'm not here to give examples of the "B.S." cable choices I've experienced, nor am I going to give the names of the brands that I ripped out of the system or the higher end brand I wound up going moving to in order to promote them.  

In short, if you like the sound of commodity wire in your systems, more power to you and I am truly happy for you. Also, all this debate and all the ones like it aside, Happy New Year to everyone!

In an earlier post someone was touting (promoting? selling?) Nordost Odin cables (see link at bottom).  A quick and dirty calculation determined that to equip a stereo system (preamp/amp/player/speakers) with this line of cables, it would cost $176,000.  Let's say that these cables provided a significant 5% "improvement" in audio quality.  My math says that the rest of your system should cost about $3,500,000.00 for this purchase to make sense.  

This is a very exaggerated example of why this topic is of interest to so many...and won't go away.  

Oh...and Nordost also sells rubber feet for your speakers and components for up to $350/ea.

That these exist is almost laughable.  That someone would have so little respect for the value of money to buy them is incomprehensible to me. That otherwise intelligent "audiophiles" would fall for the "science" that goes into these WIRES is just funny.

Here is the Nordost webpage:

http://www.soundandvision.com/content/nordost-odin-cables#RVL875dvXyhkwk1P.97

Some related reading expensive cable buyers will hate:

http://ethanwiner.com/audiophoolery.html

and: http://www.audioholics.com/audio-video-cables/top-ten-signs-an-audio-cable-vendor-is-selling-you-snake-oil