mpomerantz,
I was the sole proprietor of a mid-fi to high end shop from 1986-1993, sold more than a dozen brands of cables, with the most expensive being MIT if I recall correctly. Was also a Spendor dealer, and we should have sold a lot more SP1's than we did. Nice speakers, to this day. Yes wires make a difference, but to those of us on a beer budget... buy beer budget cables. don't get me wrong, I sold a good bit of audio equipment to those that made 10, 100, probably even a few making 1000 times more than I did peddling hifi. I HEARD the difference that MIT-750 shotgun cables made in certain systems. As for what I used at home in my own system? Much less expensive stuff. I bought a bunch of Mogami neglex 2534 mic cable that came out of a decommissioned recording studio a few years ago, and have made up a lot of interconnects for myself, friends & customers using quality connectors when I have had the time to do so. They are not invisible, they are not perfectly transparent, but they are pretty translucent, and sound 100 times better than those "free interconnects" included in the box with stuff, and with some components sound as good as, or better than $500 retail interconnects. Depending on the connectors, I sell them as low as $25 a pair for a half meter. Its all relative. There is a lot of snake oil sales in high end audio, always has been, always will be. But if YOU hear a big difference between spending $100 and $5000 in interconnects and you can afford it and that makes you happy? fine bidnez.
Don't even get me started on speaker cables, or internal wiring!
I was the sole proprietor of a mid-fi to high end shop from 1986-1993, sold more than a dozen brands of cables, with the most expensive being MIT if I recall correctly. Was also a Spendor dealer, and we should have sold a lot more SP1's than we did. Nice speakers, to this day. Yes wires make a difference, but to those of us on a beer budget... buy beer budget cables. don't get me wrong, I sold a good bit of audio equipment to those that made 10, 100, probably even a few making 1000 times more than I did peddling hifi. I HEARD the difference that MIT-750 shotgun cables made in certain systems. As for what I used at home in my own system? Much less expensive stuff. I bought a bunch of Mogami neglex 2534 mic cable that came out of a decommissioned recording studio a few years ago, and have made up a lot of interconnects for myself, friends & customers using quality connectors when I have had the time to do so. They are not invisible, they are not perfectly transparent, but they are pretty translucent, and sound 100 times better than those "free interconnects" included in the box with stuff, and with some components sound as good as, or better than $500 retail interconnects. Depending on the connectors, I sell them as low as $25 a pair for a half meter. Its all relative. There is a lot of snake oil sales in high end audio, always has been, always will be. But if YOU hear a big difference between spending $100 and $5000 in interconnects and you can afford it and that makes you happy? fine bidnez.
Don't even get me started on speaker cables, or internal wiring!