What percent of your system cost is for cables?


The thread started by A1126lin asking how much one should spend on cables caused me to do a quick estimate of what I've spent. It would be interesting to see how much we've spent for audio cables and power cables (including conditioners) relative to our total system cost.
Here's mine:
Total 12,000
Equip 8,500 70%
A-cable 1,500 13%
P-cable/cond 1,700 17%
danner
18%ICs;23%PC+PLC;59%gear


Those are based on the used prices that I paid for my rig.
I paid $2930 used for my current setup. Actual real list price would have been $8010, based on what dealers charged for this stuff when new. Most of the gear and wires (interconnects and speaker cable) are used. The speakers I bought new at auction for a steal. The power cables are DIY with material cost of about $200 total. The power conditioner is used VansEvers Clean line 85. also add $85 material cost for a DIY "TNT Flexy rack."

The PLC (power line conditioner) is proabbly overkill for this system, but it helps since I have a ceiling fan on the same circuit. I could have gone with a Monster HTS200, but figured I just might as well go one level up and get something I liked. I hand picked wires ($100-300 new prices) that brought out the best in the system, but still bought used. It seems to be a good balance.

Used (aka what I paid)
total: $2930
equip: $1730 59%
A-cable: $520 18%
P-cable/cond: $680 23%

real live retail: (not that it much matters..)
total: $8010
equip: $6000 75%
A-cable: $1160 14%
P-cable/cond: $850 11%
gear:

My interconnects, speaker cables, and power cords comprise 6% of the retail cost of my Basis-Graham-ClearAudio / Boulder / Westlake system. This percentage would probably drop to 2% - 3% if I took the cost of acoustic treatments into consideration.
I should never have read this thread. After itemizing, and seeing that I have $6K tied up in PC/Cond., Speaker, and IC cables alone, I shuddered. This is more than I spent on entire sytems in the "good old days". YIKES!
my speakers: $2100
amps: $1200
preamp(passive diy) $250
tape deck $200
dac $250
transport $600
TT/arm/cart $2800
phono $1000
_____________________________
total for system $8400

cables:
panamax AC conditioner $250
VanDenHul DIY interconnects terminated with Neutrik RCA for ALL components $270. VanDenHul DIY speaker cables $75
VanDenHul DIY power cords with locking male-plugs $200
Locking Hospital grade wall receptacles for power amps $40
______________________________________________________
total for cables $835 which is a-bit bellow 10%