Percentage of cable cost

About 10%, maybe less- 

.12% should suffice on a 20k system

.05% on a 10k system

1% on a 5k system

The biggest mistake you can make is buying no-name or low brand recognition cables. You'll find it very difficult to resell them.

Best to buy used or ex-demo and trade them up every few years. They don't lose much money after the first purchase. Nothing to wear out either.

Try to buy cables suitable for your gear which don't come on the used market often.

These are the winners.

I'm very lucky because my dealer let's me bring home cables to try out.

My investment in cables is way more than 100% of the cost of my system but if you want a highly revealing system that's what's needed.

@tmsorosk - to me - 28% is not unreasonable - since my streaming device has cables that cost more than the streamer

I did NOT tie myself down to a percentage of system cost - I figured I can calculate that once I get the right cables for my system

The cost will vary based on what the individual is prepared to spend for overall system performance.

I have found the following companies produce excellent cables to fit many budgets

• Zavfino - use the latest developments in Geometry, Wire and Insulations
• In-Akustik - adopt a more advance cable geometry for very low noise floor
• Hijiri - One of the very best cable companies that produce fine cables for high resolution systems - but a little on the expensive side

There are of course many other companies, but one of the things you may want to look for when choosing a cable, are cables that employ

• UP-OCC copper wire or UP-OCC Silver wire
• insulations that have a low value of Dielectric Constant like
  • Teflon or Foamed Teflon (aka Airlok)
  • Cotton or Coltton/Oil
• Adopt a more unusual cable geometry - like that employed by In-Akustik

I figure my "overall" cable cost is around 30% and that’s for DIY cables - it would probably be closer to 40% for commercial products

Regards - Steve

I don't think 20% of the MSRP of the piece of equipment is unreasonable to spend on cabling.