The dealer said that I, as an engineer, am the hardest type of person to convince to buy expensive cables. I told him I didn't want any, that I was planning on buying Monoprice wires. He insisted on throwing the expensive interconnects into the deal for free, and an expensive power cable, too. Yes, I'm using them, and I'm sure it's a marketing ploy so others will see that I'm using them and figure they need to buy them, too. I have even less need for good cables because they're balanced! I'd advise people to spend their money on the beginning and the end of the signal stream which means tuners, cartridges, DACs, and speakers, and then preamps and amplifiers.