The Cost of Cables


We all know that there have been countless posts with endless debates about cables on every audio forum available. The reason I start this post is to garner thoughts from others on the cost of cables, not necessarily whether they make a difference or not. I find the prices for cables staggering and I (me personally) do not understand where the cost comes from. Some will say R&D, ok, I can go for that to a point, but can the manufacturing of wire really cost much? (In thinking about this, the discussion could be applied to audio as a whole.)

Obviously cable companies survive because we purchase their products, I include myself. But if we quit paying these large prices, would prices fall dramatically or would they just quit making cables such as we know it and/or close their doors?
brianmgrarcom
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I have a grandson who makes a good living importing stuff, mostly from China. One kind of stuff is audio equipment. He tells me that he buys some decent-sounding speakers for $50, but had a hard time selling them for $200. He raised his price to $400, and now they sell well. "Who wants a $200 speaker?" is how he explains it.
When you see a set of cables that cost over twenty grand, what runs through your head? Is it a)ridiculous, or b) well, they HAVE to be the best, so no matter what I buy, I will never reach near perfection unless I have them. Sadly, I think the latter is what audiophiles assume and such products create their own demand.

My opinion, yes cable manufacturing process plays a big role in the cost. But you have to ask - is that process really achieving anything? If you make a toothpick from a tree trunk and a pocketknife, you can say a lot of work and one tree went into the process (hence the exhorbitant price), but is it better than the ones you can buy in a box?
[Using a "high test" gasoline, higher octane, can actually be bad for a car if it doesn't call for an octane that high. The octane ratings correlates to when the gas detonates, so an octane too high can cause wrong detonation.]

There is no such thing as "wrong detonation" by using an unnnecesarily high octane for a particular engine, you just use up unnecessary $.

If you use too low an octane for a vehicle it will preignite and "diesel" (ie compression ignition), or pre-ignition, in advance of the spark, but using a higher octane has no negative effect.