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

^^^ I agree.  As I said before that the cable budget should be proportional to the overall system cost.  If you only have a low end system, then Belden cables or even some zip cords should be OK.  But if your system costs north of 20K or so, then you really need some high end cables so to bring out the best of your system.

Increased metal purity adds to the cost, as well as custom dielectrics.  Beyond the basic and hand woven geometries, machine manufacturing can be quite expensive to set-up/run small batches for the very small high-end audio market.  Take a look at the construction of Nordost cables for instance.

Mr. kennyc

Copper purity: 
The industry standard for cooper used in electricity is 99.98%
All left to improve between the standard cable (99.98%) and the absolute purity (do not exist!) of 100% is 0.02%
No matter how much is that cost, or if there is any truth in that claim, as who can check it, but 0.02% of purity, if equals in 0.02% in conductivity, it is an absolute waist if money. Put it in a thicker cable! You will pay less and gain way more.

Same BS with silver cables vs cooper cables.
Silver is a better conductor, over cooper, by 5%. But as last week crude metal prices, it's 104 times more expensive. Put a thicket cooper cable by 5% and you get an equivalent of the silver cable.
But you will pay so much less.

All those arguments, of desperate cable makers, are BS. they may justify charging a leg and an arm for those says, but they add nothing to your sound. The sad truth is, that they have no idea what cable we need. They make a few but never said which out of their line is the one that will be best for me or you.
I can! the cable can be calculated and when applied, sound improves dramatically. The explanation for why that cable is scientific.

If you only have a low end system, then Belden cables or even some zip cords should be OK.

I have found that using quality cables on a system of any price will enhance the performance of that system - dramatically,
- Provided you choose the cables wisely..

My $350 mini system has rudimentary speaker and power cables made up from left over pieces of wire I had lying around and it sounds so much better, even when played very loud, which was something that I could NOT do before upgrading the cables

I once took one of my power cables to a store to audition a Bluesound Mini Pulse speaker - the guy at the store could not believe the improvements he heard, when I changed to my power cable
- his jaw dropped.

On another occasion, I was fortunate enough to be able to audition (free) a pair of IC’s (MSRP $1800) on my Bluesound Node 2 (MSRP $600) and it performed way above it’s price point
- but some might consider it is ridiculous to have cables of that price on such a component.
- they would probably feel more comfortable spending $1800 upgrading the component resulting in less of an  improvement because their cables are "restricting" the signal

I have repeatedly demonstrated the improvements cables make to friends and family, most of whom are not really into music that much - but they heard the improvements cables make

The point I am trying to make is - even low end components today perform way above their price point when good cables are installed. So opting for cables that will simply "make do" may not be the best way to proceed - especially for "audiophiles"

People often spend hundreds (or even thousands) on upgrading components, when they could have spent less on some decent cables and would have achieved better results.

The "problem" with cable selection...
- you can replace an interconnect, but if the power cable on the attached component(s) is the problem, the new IC will not demonstrate its true abilities
- and the converse is is also true.

As a general "approach" I advise people to start with upgrading their speaker cables
- audition ask questions on this forum for the best performing speaker cables you can afford
- then focus on power cables for source components - they benefit greatly with better power cables
- finally, upgrade your IC's - at this point you should be able to hear significant improvements in sound quality, but it is not all due to the interconnects - the other cables play a huge role in overall system performance
- then, and only then - upgrade the power cable to the amplifier

But a hit and miss approach to cable selection will not do any justice to the components you own.

I consider my cables more important than my components, after all they are the "conduit" for the signals that the components process - so they should be top notch as well

Regards - Steve