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

Abeyclark I agree, my friend has 8ag kimber 7k is the price now, connected to Elac B6 $279, it's sounds crazy but that's him.. the ELac did sound $500 though.,,

Well, just look at what stamp collectors pay for their little treasures !!!!!!

All the latest posts are great and start to turn this into a thread again worth reading. Thanks to aberyclark, ptss, grannyring and others for posts over the last couple of days.  I am one of those that has heard good overall in some level of more expensive cables both with 'more expensive audiophile as well as more reasonable cost gear, BUT if you see some other posts from me, you'll know I've also reached a certain point of house sound being overwhelming, cost coming into doubt, etc...where I've ripped them all out, taken the loss, realized I made some costly mistakes, etc... and went back to stock cords to try again making various levels of expenditure, but not the highest available in a line, on the market, etc...thereafter.  I also knew a dealer/friend of mine who invited to his house one day to listen to his personal system and while in his kitchen he took out an AIWA or some other 'boom box' he'd bought and had it playing a CD with it's default (luckily detachable 15-amp) cord after which point he attached a 10-foot long monstrous home-made 10ga (with Analysis Plus $30+/per foot in-wall wire) and terminated with the latest Furutech high-end 15-amp connectors so about a DIY $3500 retail PC on a $200 boom-box...) and later some massive Tara Omega power cord that was even more expensive if memory serves. I'd never make this level (10x cost or more) "wire to component" expenditure but I'll be damned if I did not hear one hell of a difference and that $200 boom-box wasn't MUCH better sounding and almost bearable...

I also happen to think there is a level of reasonable pricing even among SOTA cords and that many cable and component vendors violate even that; for example, IMHO, nothing can justify the price of some of these ICs, speaker cables, grounding solutions (in particular), etc...in the 5 and 6-figure (or very high 4 figure, all in USD$) camp.  Had one guy telling me about a system that had over $200K USD in grounding boxes and cables more than once; I just don't get that at all even though I do favor buying higher-end cables (not necessarily highest price) to a point. In short, I agree there is snake-oil and extreme markup/greed out there in some aspects of the cable industry though not all; there ARE guys out there practicing real audio/aural science and building legit products that sound better at price points that offset their total cost of development, price of innovation, materials cost to experiment/refine, etc... but there's a limit to this as well.    Fact is though, I've heard enough of a difference in my system between cheap/stock cords, ICs and spool-wire on speakers (have tried them all) and something better at many levels that I will forever spend some level of money on 'better' cables.

On a different but somewhat ironic level, I'd also expect to see earlier on this thread some justification that a basic box car like Yugo or something else is what everyone should drive as there is no difference in function between that Yugo and a higher performance/more comfortable cars of any brand....surprising that we did not!!!

Have a great weekend all!

Can't resist one more! Stereophile; Fremmer reviews Boulder 2150 at $ 99K. Power cords effect it? OF COURSE! It would be a POS if not! 

NO amount of sensible evidence will convince a self-confirmed skeptic. It will always be discounted, i.e. "He's a reviewer... can't be trusted," etc.

Re: valuation of cables, we have among us some of the world's most "thrifty" people and there again, NO amount of talk will get them to endorse even modest expense when they got a cord for free! The Wallet rules them more than theory. I know, as I was one of them. The arrogance and self-assurance is off the  charts.

The assumptions the theorists make are lame. In an age of nanotechnology they're thinking like it's the stone age. Listen to them and you WILL build a compromised audio system. 

Finally, Zephyr, I did the same with a boom box and aftermarket power cord; clear difference in sound. With such cheap and easy testing you have to be REALLY pig-headed to not try it. 

Speaking of Michael Fremer, wasn’t he the one who was challenged by the guy from the JREF Education Foundation, I forget that person’s name? Anyway, the challenge was if M. Fremer could correctly identify which cable was which in 10 consecutive blind trials. The two cables in question were el cheaply Monster Cable and the el expensivo PEAR cables that were around $20K. Did I mention the challenge was for $1 Million if M. Fremer succeeded in the blind test? Anyhow, something happened during the negotiations and test never took place. Now, I don’t know if M. Fremer was unhappy with the constraints of the tests, whether JREF got paranoid, thinking maybe this audiophile dude really can hear difference in cables and might very possibly take the Million Dollar prize or what all.