Cable Costs Relative to System


Since making a spread sheet with my audio system prices, I have been thinking(shocked) about my total investment in cables. My total system retails at $67,000 (Digital and analog front ends included). I purchased all of it here on Audiogon so my investment is about 50%. Of that I have about 10% invested in interconnects and cables and another 10% in Power Cables (Shunyata Hydra included). That's $13,000 worth of wire. I'm starting to question whether it might be more effective to put some of this budget into acitve components. It would take forever to listen to all possible combinations, but would like to hear others experiences with relatively high end systems and cable selection. It would seem to me that the point of diminishing returns would be reached sooner with cables than with speakers and amps. Do most of you follow the 10% "rule" for cabling? How do PCs fit into this rule? Are there any super bargain cables capable of keeping up with highly resolving electronics?
metaphysics
In my $16K system of new and used components, all the wire adds up to a hair under 10%. This wasn't by design, but I just happened to come across this posts and did the math. I was surprised by how close to 10% I was without even knowing it!

Krell/Focal/Nordost system.

gherrera1
Gherrea1 - I ended up 18.6% Now I have to upgrade equipment to bring ratio down to recommended 10% (at least that's what I'm going to tell my wife)
Kijanki,

That's the perfect excuse to upgrade. Tell the wife your system sounds better with the 10% wire rule.
There is no correlation between cost and performance in wire. I use Anti-Cables...I compared it to the top of the lines in Nordost, Audioquest, Kimber, Wireworld, Purist, Cardas, etc.,etc. To my wife's and my ears, Anti-Cables came out best. The closest to the Anti-Cables were the Audioquest Sky/Everest combination at a huge increase in price...and even then the Anti-Cables were more like music. Wire has to work with the components you have. A meter of interconnect will sound different with different components. All we can do as audiophiles is to experiment ourselves with our own systems, since MIT or any brand will sound WAY different in my system than in yours. The joy of this hobby is not to read reviews and abide by them, but to find out what floats our own boats.