The Cost of Cables

I really like this post, kudos to all for not letting this degenerate as so many posts have! I think it is really telling, as jcmorgan notes, that none of the people truly in the know are talking....with all the mfrs and dealers who are members of audiogon who generally chirp in missing, I think that says everything we need to know about justification of cables, there truly is no real, definitive reason except that they charge absolutely what the market will bear.

The crux of the matter for me is, and I suspect the originator of this post, the frustration of hearing differences in cables, wanting the better cables, but knowing deep down we are not getting relative value to the other things in our system, or for that matter, the other things in life. One can buy a brand new Civic for what many of have just in cables in our systems. I bet speakers, turntables, amps all follow a 4 or 5 to 1 rule, in other words that the cost of actual manufacture per piece is one fourth to one fifth the actual retail list, whereas cables are probably around 1/20th or less than the retail sale price.

So obviously a few of us with various sytems should get together and start a cable business, write off our systems as R&D, as well as our music, and start a cable companies. WE would have no additional "r&d" costs as we already have the test beds!!! Our cables then should be much less expensive than our competitors, and we can clean up. Who's with me????

Cheers!!
Chris

Will anyone be happier if they know the REAL reason?

Just wondering...
Tvad

I know the real reason: Capitalism

Cable technology is Capitalism at it's finest.
Call it 'Capitalism Gone Wild'. :)

Chrisla, great idea. Though once we get started, I may want to invest more in my own R&D department. nudge nudge wink wink.

Something I don't think I've seen as I've skimmed this thread, and countless others like it is that when it comes to audiophiles, they aren't buying cables as a utilitarian item. They are buying them as art.

Expensive cables are not just made for the purpose of moving signal from point A to point B, but for a full kinesthetic experience. Not just aurally, but visual, tactile, and ultimately emotionally. If an object moves people, whether it's dollops of paint on canvas, a lump of bronze or a set of cables, how can you put a price on that?

I'm sure Martin Heidegger would have had something to say on this subject if you had asked him.

chris...your statement above ...'so obviously a few of us with various systems......' is the easy part.the difficulty begins when you begin to put your ideas into actual action. my guess is that you would quickly find out why cables ..as well as audio gear in general..like most of the rest of the worlds, non-essential possessions, are priced so high.the idea is the easy part...how many people in life have great ideas about 'a better mouse trap'..but don't have the guts to follow through with that idea?..my guess is that the individuals who own the cable companies...and most of them are probably individuals..are part of that small percentage of the population that did..fortunately for me and others..have the guts to put their money where their mouth was and go 'out on a limb' with their ideas..with the big chance of complete failure..and produce cables that now populate..expensive or not..all our systems...

And about all that "R&D"... Since the conclusion about ALL cabling is that they're system/component-dependent, and impedance/inductance-matching so important, what or why don't cable manufacturers provide technical criteria for which their cables were designed and tested (thus claims)? Why should it be such a guessing game (trial/error) for the buyer? Most other audio equipment provide some form of specifications, so why can't/don't cable manufacturers at least provide "recommended parameters" that their cables perform best with?