Wow, $10k+ cables

Margins vary but typically the actual materials + labor cost is 1/6 of retail with the retailer making the largest slice generally. Now I worked as a buyer one summer for a highly regarded brand but only got to peek behind one curtain. The cost of the super high-purity wire is rather significant and quite a bit of it sourced thru Mr. Cardas if I am not mistaken. The minimum quantities for purchase are a significant commitment financially and to reach quantity discounts even greater. Hand construction in the case of a Litz cable; a multi-layered helical topology that also involved anti-static, and anti-microphonic materials was considerably labor and skill intensive. Our terminations were also hand-made from solid high purity stock which too required considerable investment before anything was constructed. Cost of research and development is where most end users are unawares but particularly costly in the case of machine-made cable where specialized looms and tooling investments can be great. Quality control; a particular job category rapidly diminishing in America may also add costs. All in all to say you can get your monies worth in the end but boutique pricing as with many luxury products can also be highly inflated. Just a few things to think about. I like to observe Sturgeon's Law; 90% or everything is BS. You've got to do your due diligence and let the buyer beware. YMMV, Music is the best.

I have tried a number of very high end cables, including interconnects, power cords, and speaker cables.  I'm not rich by any means but if you purchase smart you can "rent" these for a while and get your money back when you sell shortly after......and they do make a difference.  On occasion they can be fabulous!  (ie High Fidelity UR and Stage III Kraken) But lets be real here....it's not like they take a Volkswagen and turn it into a Ferrari.  If you have your system fine tuned and get one of these cables you might be looking at the last 5-10% performance...and in high end audio that can be a pretty pleasing 5-10%.  That's fine if you have deep pockets but for most people that last bit just isn't worth the price of admission.  The goal for me is to get 95% of the performance of these uber cables at 30-50% of the cost....and lets be honest, nobody pays msrp for these cables.  Many $10K cables can be had at around 60-70% of msrp if you can find a "demo" cable from a dealer.  Then, if you can find a second hand cable you might be at 40% of the msrp.  For some reason these manufactures list their cable very high, thinking that everyone will call it the best because it's the most expensive.....then they deep discount so you feel good about the deal you got!!  It's their way of separating themselves from the hords.  But again, there are two ways to beat the system...….find a fabulous deal on an uber cable (it happens) or find a giant killer at an even better price (that happens too).  The only people paying anywhere near msrp are the people with deep pockets and no patience, and must have it NOW.

I agree very much with bullot and several other that the upper cabels are indeed very very pleasing. I took a Tata Labs eco Zero ic 20 k to a great system 300 k where is placed a ic worth about 10k and the system shined so much, we could not stop laughing and wondering. 
It felt that we somehow had found the missing link for this system.
The guy who owned the system had had the same experience when the 10k cable was installed and he took out a 6k cable.
It may only be small changes if you use the % measurement but think it like this, eat your good meal totally without salt and taste how that goes despite you only miss 0,01%.
I experience that the harmony in the system chain must be intact and as the signal transfer is extremely difficult, building / developing extreme good cabels will cost a lot. 
Unfortionatly in Ultra highend there is no way around the pricy cabels yet but  the lower priced  cabels are offering better and better performance as they learn from the big ones, as always.
The wireless technologies are also becoming better and better so soon we might have these in Ultra highend as well.

While I do believe there is a difference in cables and cables can be system dependent, I will say what I have always said: Everyone is free to spend what they want or what they can on their hobby but the fact is: No where else is there used $1K+ per ft. cables for anything. Not at CERN, not at NASA, not in the recording industry, not in the communications industry - only here in the, sometimes delusional, world of the audiophile is there a such thing as thousands of dollars per foot cords and cables....Jim

It is a puzzle. I've "A-B" tested home-made 10 & 12 gauge (from a McIntosh to Revel F328Be speakers, for e.g.) along with audioquests, and custom length from Blue Jean Cables http://www.bluejeanscable.com/ I'm no engineer, nor did I employ any meters I just A-B and listened to several different sources. I could tell an appreciable difference from my homemade cables to audioquest or Blue Jean. But audioquest price at $4000.00 vs. about $200.00 was not discernable to my ears. Additionally, I had one audioquest terminal fail (you can purchase 4 of their silver banana replacement ends for about $40-50) and was shocked that the connection was simply set-screws into twisted wire. For all the hype about their cables, the connections are worse than homemade. Blue Jean Cables use "ultrasonically-welded" terminations and they are impressive. In re. to headphone, IEM, headphone amp / dac... I've tried several high-end connections and cannot tell any difference. A good cable, with a welded termination is great. Folks with better hearing, more discriminating audio ears may hear improvements. Happy listening!