Are cables really worth their high price because of their geometry?

@williewonka

Hi, I'm not certain you ever heard of, or are familiar with, a certain HPC named interconnect type cable that was produced/marketed by Madrigal (Levinson) way back in the early mid 80s?
H standing for helical, P for planar, C for copper. Yet, HOW is it actually constructed? 

Well, it has an inner centre/core of a very thick like fish-line string about 1/16 inch ø of (I'm guessing) teflon.
Around this is wound tightly, helical, a very thin foil like, some ⅛ inch wide copper foil. Followed by a dual (or tripple? layer of helical wound telfon tape.
Now in the opposite direction, wound helical is the negative conductor, followed by the second insulation layer of teflon wound tape. This is followed by the screen, of a fine mesh 'sock' and then all covered by some type of light grey shrink sleeve. 

All this is some VERY unassuming looking cable, but the efford of criss cross helical winding of every delicate (planar conductor) foil and teflon insulation material needs to be seen to be believed. 
Then appreciate the skill, by use of silver solder connected XLR plugs to these delimate foils, is quite something in deed. 

So how about the sound presentation? 
Well, it sure beats every thing IC I ever had in my system, including my last, Transparent Music Link Ultra XLR, this by a really most *noteable* degree in trebble, bass, and overall clarity. 

This is the most elaborate construction I've ever seen - and it truly works.
 
Don't ask me about the original cost. It must have been rather high, and looking almost puny and very unattractive, pencil thick only - not a marketable smash hit for sure.

I guess that's why they didn't make it for more than a couple of years - if even that long. 

But - the best IC I *ever* had in my system. 
So... CONSTRUCTION MATTERS - BIG TIME, in my learning. 

Imagine all these controversies about cable geometry....

Those who experiment with it.... And others who do not....

My ears/brain tell me that except for experimenting with it, it is not possible to develop a sound opinion...

It is like with my last  homemade "creation" the " The twin Fans combing sound" all will laught without even knowing anything, i will smile with my low cost reverse engineering tweak, not of a cable, but a room enhancer.....

« Those who speak sometimes know, those who stay silent always learn in all case » - Groucho Marx

Mr.  speedbump6
I understand about speaker cables more than any other.
It was always left to charlatans who has no idea what cables the customers need. 
The BS around it, went from weird to bizarre.  
It was a trend, waves of BS and now we are at geometry.
It's a temporary BS till the next one.
The only thing matters with a speaker cable, is it's relative resistance value to the Amp's Ro or DF.
The other parameter that goes in, is the cable length.
Put that in a calculation, would generate results of some thicker cables that you would find on the market.
Most cable on the market are of #12 or #14 awg, as it is easy to work with and they fit into most banana plugs and spades.
What about some thicker cable, required for Amp's with DF of 400 and above, at a 10' length? They should be of #0 awg or more. 
No geometry, no cryo, no directionality, no purity, no silver over cooper, no, no, no...even the bi wire is a BS. Run a simple simulation on Spice and you will realize that a single wire, with the same resistance of the two (bi wire) is better.
But who will give up a double sale over a single?

@b4icu

Wow, taking about a strong opinion, I say!

Colour me daft, but I still possess 3 kinds of speaker cables, in my system since a VERY long time, and always coming back to it! A Straight Wire WaveGuide, using teflon insulated solid copper wires 4 each for plus and minus, wound around a teflon string type centre core ~2.5mm ø , both ends using good quality (Furutech) cable shoes.

Nothing soldered, which earlier on was mildly degrading performance, since very hard to get good solder joints even with a high wattage solder iron.
Something I really only learned after de-soldering! 😒

Second, a very noticeably DIFFERENT sounding set, also 5 foot long, pure silver strand litz (many strands) clear ABS coated cable.
Rather bright sounding, ok tight bass but ~puny~ midrange, to put it quite simply.

Third, thicker copper strand ± same gauge as the silver cable, again using waxy ABS type insulation but seperate round strands, red and black pigmented ABS, running next to each other straight, but all embedded in cotton fibres! (damping?) and finally coated in a white PVC outer layer.
Not as bright as the silver litz, but not as coherent sounding as the StraightWire, which sounds overall more natural by comparison.

I had also listened/tested in my system a *very* elaborate construction Kimber copper SC, about 1½ inch thick! with lots a of ’fancy’ inner foam damping etc. and found no real difference to the StraightWire. At all.

So, in my learing, speaker wires, different makes and constructions, *can* absolutely sound noticeably different - yet some, even of mightily different design/construction .. don’t necessarily do so. 
Ergo... it ALL depends. Why? 🤔
That’s another story. 😊

PS: I do not underestimate the influence of the speaker’s x-over, design and construction as all has an influence too, and of course NEVER MIND your power amp’s damping factor! 🙃

@justmetoo - Thanks for that info - I've not heard of that cable, but from your description it sounds very similar in some respects to my Helix Cables.

Another very similar cable I am aware of is the Interconnect from Anti-Cable
http://anticables.com/interconnects/analog-rca-interconnects

But I have no experience with what they sound like. Reports on this forum seem to be very favorable though.

The problem with cables like these is the time to fabricate them and they become difficult to make when you get up to 2-3 meters long, making them more expensive to the customer

Regards - Steve