Cables that cost more than the speakers?

Rayhall, you make some really good points that I tend to agree with. Red, makes just as valid a point though.
I often wondered if the $3000.00 interconnect scene would vanish if no one supported it. What I mean is , would these products then be released at,say $500.00? It's only a reworking of geometry, dielectric and conductors right?
There really is nothing MATERIAL wise to make a cable (copper) cost this much is there? Am I out of line here?.......Frank

Frap, I agree, but presumably R&D and marketing are a large percentage of overall cost - certainly if you wanted to break into what is a very crowded market. If not, then you or I could re-badge some Belden, slap a $3,000 sticker on it and retire - no such luck methinks.

There is a couple of interesting statements you made and you are close but formed an opinion too soon. You said there are no truly neutral cables out there, there are a couple. You also said that one cable won't work with everything and you are right when talking about the ones that aren't neutral. Use the neutral ones and they not only work in everything but they work best in everything unless using a cable flaw to correct equipment deficiencies. By the way the best interconnect cable I know of in the neutral category is $800 unless balanced and then it's $1300. The $800 will replace Valhalla as an improvement. I always try to point out that the more expensive is not the best.

I find these questions fascinating, I've done the work with a $400,000 array of cables, first forming an opinion of a couple of lines that are the best you can get for your money at every price point.

Many seem to think there is a limit to the cable cost to comonent issue. A great $3000 speaker will sound better with whatever top echelon cable you want because it's a matter of the speaker being able to be judged on what it can do as opposed to what an inferior cable limits it to.

A cable can be looked at as a limiter, the lower quality limits huge amounts of detail, depth, ambience, etc. $25000 speakers won't sound anything like what they can and should sound like if the cables are trashing the sound and poor cables will color and distort the sound. If cables damage and limit the signal being fed into the speakers how can great speakers fix it or make it sound good? No equipment no matter how good it is compensates for cable limitations. Use good cable on decent equipment and it sounds way better.

Trust me when I say that if you want to make a $3000 speaker sound magical it's with great cable, everything follows that. Take a $12000 speaker and choke it down with mediocre wire and there is no way to make it sound good. The $3000 speaker isn't going to perform any better and since it wasn't as good as the higher priced one it will suffer more.

Whatever limitations are there from cable that's it.

>>Whatever limitations are there from cable that's it<<

I'll take my chances with a pair of $12,000 speakers and mediocre cables as opposed to a $3,000 pair of speakers and super cables.