I am sick of cables

I don't think money should be the factor in determining cables but coherence is what to base judgement upon. Some may say a $500 Ic sounds the best in their system while others believe a $.50 piece of copper wire is perfect. Different flavors for different people. All in the quest of "best sound."

My approach is the same with cables as with any other potentially large investment.

I do some reading on what others have experienced with various products then start small (ie not too expensive) + typically used.

If I am not satisfied, I try something else.

If I try various options around a particular price point and am not satisfied with any, then I look to move up to something more costly when needed.

This is the fast track to landing on an overall system configuration that sings to you without necessarily just throwing $$$s at the problem out of the gate and hoping that solves all problems.

Isn't that the way most folks shop for most things?

You really have to resist the natural inclination to believe that price determines results. It may or may not in the end. You need to take things in reasoned steps, one at a time, to really know for sure.

What drives the cost of expensive cables (aside from markups) is the use of exotic materials and construction techniques. I think that the fundamental problem here is that there is little or no established science supporting a correlation between those materials and techniques and better sound.

And muddling the picture further is that many exotic cables are non-neutral by design, incorporating in some cases outlandish values of capacitance or inductance, or "network boxes" whose function is defined primarily by nonsensical techno-hype.

I don't think that one has to be an extreme cynic to feel that the manufacturers and sellers of exotic, expensive cables are taking advantage of our natural instinct to assume that more expensive = better, in selling products where there is little or no valid basis for that to be true. Other than, I should add, euphonic synergy (especially in the case of the non-neutral cables), which could most likely be duplicated at much lower cost if the designers were motivated to try to do so.

A quote from the Bill Whitlock paper I referenced in my earlier post in this thread (a paper which presents several fundamental reasons why cables CAN and DO sound different):

Some audio experts believe audio is too important to be trusted to technology, and consequently, they dismiss all scientific methods, including double-blind tests. This attitude, combined with the widespread notion that more expensive products must be better, has opened the door to a flood of marketing hype and misinformation. Promotional white papers abound with pseudo-science buzz words, theoretical explanations based on absurd and fanciful physics, and new proprietary measurement techniques replete with previously unknown units of measure.

Regards,
-- Al

I agree that some of the exotic materials and construction involved in some of the high price cables serve as marketing hype. Still, there are extra costs involved here, now, as to whether those extra costs are reflected in the price. This is where I have a problem. The marketing hype and reported superiority creates a buzz which ensures sales at what I believe are greatly inflated prices. I mean, 1m cables that retail for 2500k, 4k and above, that seems crazy to me (doesn't mean I wouldn't buy them if I had the money)! That old saying, "what the market will bear" certainly holds true here. Can you imagine if the wealthy audiophile suddenly stopped buying these cables, I'm sure they would beome much more affordable. Look at the cost of living in NYC.

I would like to see some investigative reports into the lifestyle of some of these cable purveyors. Some of them may be living in a similar style to the 'geniuses' on Wall St. On the other hand, perhaps they're not, in which case it would seem they are charging a reasonable amount. And then, it could also be they make a huge profit on very small margin, not wealthy but living very comfortably with very little effort. I bet there are cable purveyors that fit into each of these categories.

Having said that, I would like to hear the Tara Zeros, vacuum sealed cable, the best dialectec is no dialectic, and shielded as well. I wonder how much profit margin here?

Years ago, it used to be that vendors made their margins on speakers and accessories. There was in comparison little or no margin on electronics.

I don't know if this is still the case or not, but it would surprise me if not.