why do people feel the need to buy expensive cable

I would never have agreed to go back on the ’spend more/pray for good results" merry go round if I had not heard truly remarkable differences when the cables in question in place and not been fooled in the double-blind testing when they were not.

We’ve been trying to break the price higher--better results paradigm in half. Problem is, people don’t really expect to get better for a lower price and dealers and so on, generally HATE that kind of scenario.

EG, what if one, as a dealer or a manufacturer....has a customer upgraded to $20-30-40-80k in the costs of a loom, and something comes along that invalidates that decision, a decision which might be only a few months to a few years old?

The dealers want the new company dead.
The manufacturers want that company dead.
The magazines with their ad revenue want that company dead.
The existing ’in situ’ high end group..wants that company dead.

But they would all gladly promote the new ideals, if they could take the company, ideas, and profits away from the new company. It’s ok, great in fact, if they could eat the new...and stay on top.

There is not acceptance by the market end of the pond, instead there is utter rejection on all fronts. Customers rarely expect better for less, as well. They are wired to expect that better always costs more. Even the customer base walks away from a potentially better deal, aided by the views and positions of the market they deal with.

All the standard human responses to the threat of change.

the next point is that we’ve reached a brick wall in ’wire’ cable design. We’re going in circles, when in the given system, $200-500 cables are barely different to some audiophiles than a $20k cable.

Even if we give people a break (but really a break to the cable business) and say "not all can hear these subtle differences depending on system components and the ear/brain of the individual doing the listening", and so on. Even when we take that into account...we are clearly now going in circles with ’wire’.

Which illustrates a system gone stale. Nothing fundamentally new, or possible. An end game. The elephant in the ’wire/cable’ room. The fight between detail and screech in high end cable design (including power cords and fancy power centers, etc). You’ve hit the development wall. Congratulations. What are they going to do, guild the Lilly on another $10k power bar? When in the end run, there is not much left other than that. Infinity costs and infinity pricing... into the last 2-5% of perfection of a finalized technology. Nothing new there.

Time for something different running on a different track?

I always look for better for less.  That often comes from, with the exception of clothes and groceries, buying a pre-owned (yes used) product. 

A couple precepts, among others, keep me out of trouble...one is that I typically have a price I will not exceed.  Second is that I always consider and understand the definition of value: "quality divided by price = value." 

In other words for products of like quality (durability, performance, appearance, etc), the one with the lowest cost represents the best value.  Everybody understands that but many don't care....or don't need to care...or don't want to care.  

Wanting something badly and being able to purchase it doesn't change it's value relative to other products.  Nor does it make it a wise purchase when overpriced and of questionable performance.

dynaquest4

.... for products of like quality (durability, performance, appearance, etc), the one with the lowest cost represents the best value. Everybody understands that ...

No, everybody doesn't understand that, and not everyone accepts your definition of "value." It's certainly fine for you to adopt this as your personal definition of value, but it's a subjective assessment, and others will differ. 

Right, cleeds, I forgot to mention that there are consumers who  blindly (or is that double-blindly) use a product's price as a measure of the product's quality.  In which case, my equation would be invalid for them.