Cable Costs Relative to System

We are lucky to have a few new companies popping up that offer outstanding cables, both signal and ac, at fair prices. Yes, we all lust after Valhalla and G5, but it's possible to come close, real close, without the second mortgage type of expenditure. With this in mind, I believe no more than 10% of system value is about right for cable investment. I have heard cables make the difference between good sound and outstanding sound, so I think them very important, but I do feel many cables are ridiculously priced. My system value at retail prices is about 60K. My cable investment including powercords comes in at just under 5K. Sonically, IMO, sound quality is exceptional.

I am guilty in this thread but I will say this once again, "a cables performance is system centric". Some cables sound better in different set ups. I recently auditioned about everything under the sun in my 2 channel system and settled on AudioQuest Anaconda for my interconnects and AudioQuest Volcano for my speaker wires. I also am a huge believer in the Shunyata Power Cords as I have witnessed a huge difference in sonic performance. (in my system) Anyway, my system is in the $12K range and I have about $4K on top of that in cables. Not too nuts but still a decent investment. Crazy, but that's how it goes..

KiD

I'm with Cornfed, Ckuipers, and other experienced audio enthusiasts who know value when they hear it. I don't know how many systems I have listened to that were terrible but had "great cables." _Kid, I looked at your system pic, great room! Good amp, OK speakers, bright and shallow front end. Get my drift? There are areas due for major improvement. With the money you spent on the power chord alone, you could have bought devastating speakers and a much more pleasing front end. The time to start putting big money into cable rolling is after you've maximized playback of your favorite music styles by choosing speakers, amp and front end wisely. I just had a good fellow who has a system much like yours, only he went all the way to the breaker box with super wire. Our two systems are similarly priced. Instantly, he knew there was a whole new level of listening satisfaction, much higher than he had ever dreamed of.

Cables are not an extra accesory you add later when you can afford them. If you don't buy some when you buy your equipment, you'll either be hooking your system up with unshielded "antennas" or, with the better brands who don't give you any, not hooking it up at all. People who make cable purchases out to be something cost concious people should opt out of are missing the point.
That the "better components" found in one poster's system "need less tweaking" is a blatently erroneous statement. The cables are for THE SOUND, not the component. It may be crazy to put a $5000 CD Player with a $300 amp, but at least the amp will be showing what it can do and not being held back.
As far as "active vs. passive" what exactly is the big difference? Any component can only make things worse. If a $75,000 system "deserves" $7500 to $15,000, but you get the cables that seem to get everything right for less, or more, that's fine. As far as the ratio, it was probably only invented to prepare customers at the beginning of a sale for the extra expense involved that they never count on.
To put it another way, how stressed out would you be getting about putting 55% of your money into the front end, or 35% on speakers if that was the Magic Ratio? It should really be more random than that I think, although an awful lot of people had 10% to 20%.
BTW, I realize this thread is dead, but people will still come across it, and I wanted to make My Humble Opinion heard.
...or not so humble...

Juicebox, buy whatever turns you on. Don't go into debt doing it, though, it's clear you are already suffering from cable madness.