Cable Costs Relative to System

Kijanki, you say;
"I re trimmed my Satoris with new spades and discovered that wire has inside isolated strands (9 I think) + 1 strand that is not solid but has inside again 9 very small strands."
and I found from the AZ website;
“An incrementally layered, multiple strand, non-extruded, pure "zero crystal" copper cable designed for amplified signal delivery in perfect phase with absolute spectral and tonal coherence..."
AZ seems a little vague compared to other manufacturers who more specifically report their cable construction or even provide pictures, so I have been curious to their construction. Are saying you found the Satori's use both solid core and stranded PCOCC copper wire?
I am finding a number of well-respected cable manufacturers using stranded wire for both IC's and speaker cables. To my ears, there seem to be trade-offs with stranded wire being maybe a bit more dynamic and solid core being maybe a bit more clear/pure sounding. Maybe Robert Lee has found a good sonic trade-off? I have been recently using and enjoying his Double Barrel speaker cables in 5 ft. length. I have been considering DIY speaker cables, but it is hard to justify when the Double Barrel's sound so good.
I am using DIY IC's of solid silver, some made from the raw Jupiter wire, and others made from bulk premanufactured wire with a 23awg twisted pair and foamed Teflon tape dielectric. My total cable expenditure with that set-up is about 6.5 percent of equipment cost and my system sounds as good or better than ever.

Mitch - Double Barrel is very good and it is step above Satori Shotgun (so I heard). Satori wires look like Teflon isolated strands + one wire consisting of strands of isolated (enamel) magnet wires. I was looking for Silver Reference II ICs (about $450) while I found AZ Absolute 0.5m XLR for $600. I could not refuse that - if I did I would have bad dreams for the rest of my life, I'm sure.

Stringreen makes a good point about no correlation between cost and performance. A lot depends on the equipment and how it reacts to cables. For example, I just changed to an all Linn system and very entry level kimber works much better than the more expensive and exotic Purist cables I used to own. People need to audition and be careful before blowing $$$ on cables they dont need.

There is also the question of the different parameters that you have to put in the equation (ie country of origin, new vs used etc). For example, on the basis of "retail prices" my cabling would be c. 35% of my system's overall value. They come from a US manufacturer, and their prices are much higher here in Europe (vice versa for European cables in the US). I bought all of them used and sometimes at 1/3 or less of their original value - which would drop the overall percentage to under 20%. This is the important factor - what it actually costs you in real terms.

My friend bought Honda Civic and he just loves this car. He believes that there is no correlation at all between performance/quality and the price. I told him that quality difference between Rolls-Royce and his Honda Civic is pretty much the same as between Honda Civic and a Yugo.

Wouldn't you agree that there is SOME correlation between price and sound of cables - or is it completely random and things like purity of metal, capacitance, inductance etc. are not important at all. Can good sounding cable be made of dirtiest, cheapest copper (copper oxide is a semiconductor)?