Do you consider cables to be a "component" of your system?

@coralkong Absolutely, interconnect cables are playing very important in my system!

My preference for signal cables lies on well known for reliability/noise connector brands (professional series Neutrik etc), impedance, flexibility, and cable shielding effectiveness (measured in dB, good cable EM shielding should be >80dB). Established connector manufacturers have better contact quality with higher contact pressure, and use proper plating technology. Power cord has to be a short as possible, and to use proper connectors at the ends. In some cases I use power cords combined with EM filter, and with option to disconnect  ground to avoid ground loops. In many cases claims of improvements after replacing cable are real for SQ, but are result of  mechanical contact cleaning from oxides and dirt, during plug/unplug procedure. In that case blind test, where parts A-B compared multiple times, does not show reliable results. Cables need to be managed by grouping into power/speaker/signal bunch, to reduce background noise.

Wow..so what your saying is keep things tight, clean, and appropriate size. Separate power from interconnects, speaker wires, that sort of thing. All of which should be common knowledge and applied. A decent piece of equipment will have decent cables end of story. I know of no manufacture of quality product that sells that product with junk power cables. Having said that why would anybody assume they know more than engineers of said product and swap out parts with bogus Parts at ridiculous prices to support a BS industry. People will pay for what ever turns there crank so be it, let’s dive into more important threads 🧵 Perhaps weather black equipment sounds better than silver, end The 40 year war…Lol

Cheers

A decent piece of equipment will have decent cables end of story. I know of no manufacture of quality product that sells that product with junk power cables.

On the contrary, I have a hard time thinking of a manufacturer that sells their products with decent power cables. 
 

Having said that why would anybody assume they know more than engineers of said product and swap out parts with bogus Parts at ridiculous prices to support a BS industry. 

They don’t, but you’re assuming the engineers chose the power cable shipped with the product because they thought it was the best.  If electronics manufacturers shipped their products with better cables it’d increase the price significantly and there’s no guarantee that providing a better power cord would work well in the context of the customer’s system and their personal tastes.  Manufacturers of good equipment know that cables are a crapshoot given those significant variables and that their customers either already have or will choose their own aftermarket PCs so providing better cords and increasing the price of their product accordingly makes no sense. 

That is C… Manufactures ship their equipment with a AC supply cables that complement their equipment period ! They do not assume people are going to an aftermarket BS company to improve the quality of their equipment. I’ve never seen that written in sales brochures or have I heard it brought up in conversations with quality equipment sales people. If there was any truth to this BS cable stuff why would manufactures not spend and charge extra for an earth shattering better cable Full well assuming A customer has the money and will be purchasing it from some aftermarket schmuck. That does not make any sense, sort of pay me to hear the best of my equipment or go pay somebody else because they’re gonna make it better no logic in that not to mention no science to it either. The only reason a good quality manufacturer isn’t involved with this whole cable BS thing is just that there’s no science behind it no consistent reality so essentially it is BS. And finally The cord supplied with an individual component has absolutely no possible way of affecting Other components in the system including their individual sound quality or characteristics. 98 % placebo !!