Cable Costs Relative to System

A recent study showed that when a $40 wine is compared to a $5 wine, the most important determinant of the taste is the price tag. Switch the price tags and people identify the wine with the higher price as better tasting. ALSO, the study found that as the price tags were moved, the brain actually showed heightened activity associated with pleasure that correlated with the price tag, not the actual wine being sampled. The article was titled "Want to improve the taste of wine? Raise the price." Study done at Cal Tech and reported by AP on 4/15/08. Most people are too far-gone to actually reason things out so this is for the few who actually hear no difference: don't be shamed or bullied into creating a difference and paying more. The percentage to be spent on cables There are several well-known amp makers who recommend NOT switching power cords. The president of my amp company told me not to use a power conditioner or switch cords. For some companies, it’s right in the owner's manual. Components use DC, not AC. And the DC is fed from a power supply, which acts as a storage tank, not from the wall. That makes the power cord situation especially incredible, but if people can actually cause themselves to feel pleasure when a price is increased on wine then there is no rational argument that will matter. The subjects were not lying; they truly enjoyed the higher price more even though the wine had not changed! If you can are emotionally able, do a/b/x testing and save money. I always do and I have found $3,000 speakers that easily beat $14,000 units. Of course, this is to MY tastes- that is a different issue altogether.
There are excellent cable article all over the Internet. I recommend reading as many of these as possible and then doing blind testing. There may be a difference, but you won't need to know prices to hear it. Of course, quality may make a difference but the percentage of your expenses dedicated to cables should be determoined by what you hear and enjoy. Be as honest with yourself as possible, after all it's your money.

I have a $2500 integrated, a $4000 front end, and $9500 speakers. My power cords cost $1850 each, my interconnects $6495 and my speaker cables $12500! Without the cables, the system is ok....with the cables, it is close to some of the mega buck systems I've owned over the years. Maybe more musical in some respects, if being able to enjoy more recordings is the bar by which we measure. I've done the value cables and everything in between...some are worthless, others are sublime and worth every penny! MIT's approach deals with the real world problems inherent in all conventional cables and does so with an ear for musicality. Transparent does a fine job as well, but in a more obtrusive way...not compatible for many systems and in line filtration used instead of parallel technology.

IMHO it is all system dependent. First is the components for your front end both vinyl and digital. Then the amplification.
You can spend lots or little. The thing to do is borrow the cables and try them in your system. Change only one cord at a time so that the changes will apply to one one component at a time.
The amount of money you spend is a matter of personal budget.
Did a shoot out of various power cords. All of the power cords were plugged into the Audience ar12, 20 amp version.
The power cords tested were Shunyata, Aural Symphonics, Nordost, Synergistics and Audience. See my posts on my System threads.
The testing was done over a three day period and all cables were burned in.
By changing PCs on the Audio Research CD7 I could get more resolution and better dynamics.
I had several friends over for the final day of testing. All were disbelievers of being able hear any differences between power cords.
As the evening progressed they all became firm believers that the last five feet can make a profound difference on the music.
In my system the Aural Symphonics worked best or had the best synergy. It was not the most expensive of the PCs demoed.
So go and try different cables and see what works for you.

That my two cents worth.

Rugyboogie states the facts very well and without the abrasiveness if some other would be Shaman of things high end.

Ok, cables do sound different to you, how come no one talks aout written proof and measurements? In my system expensive transparent cables were compared to off the shelves once. To me they sounded the same and measured the same.