Pro Cables vs. Audio Cables....Are We Being Duped?

Some of the posts seem to assume that there is only one level of pro cable which is not really true. However, it is very clear that studios needing tons of cables cannot afford to spend $500 per meter. Generally a cable like the Canare StarQuad is regarded as a high-end studio cable. One of the biggest differences with consumer cables is the plating of the contacts. Pro studios plug and unplug so much that they need contacts without soft metals like gold or silver. These connectors are often noticably inferior to high-end home audio cables.
For the cable runs themselves one must remember that the whole point to balance audio is that cable quality and length is less important. The biggest differences are in RF/EMI rejection. I think in a fully balanced setup a good pro cable like StarQuad mated with high-end connectors would be very similar to mega-bucks cables. In a certain sense this is the whole poit of going balanced.

It seems to me that the studio recording engineers would use the best available cabling for recording purposes. Why do we spend 10x as much for playback cables?

Most "Pro" cables are more concerned with longevity and standing up to abuse rather than the actual materials used. Copper is copper, shielding is shielding, etc... to MOST people in the Pro Sound industry. As such, the dielectrics on most "Pro" cables are VERY different from "audiophile grade" cables, wire geometry may be different, the grade of copper or silver may be different, etc... As such, the "audiophile" cables SHOULD cost more but not THAT much more.

Please don't take this the wrong way. I am NOT defending the "wire bandits" in ANY way, shape or form. Most "wire companies" take off the shelf components from REAL wire & cable manufacturers, have their names put on them and then use some "fancy" connectors on them. That is why i am a BIG proponent of DIY cable designs. Unless a design uses a LOT of very precise configuring or braiding, you can probably build better cables than what you can buy for 10 times the price. Sean
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Except for the run from a mic or di to mic preamp (where an exceptional cable might be worthwhile), everything else in a recording studio is running at +4dbM (pro level) rather than -10dbV (home level). -- Quite a difference.

I'm one of those people who went out and bought or demo'd
Transparent and MIT cables. They can make a difference.
My experience; I owned at the time of "the great experiment"
Threshold T2 preamp, T400 amp, Krell KPS20i cd player. MOST
IMPORTANT, THE ROOM!! 7.5' ceiling,13'x 21' The floor is con
crete as were the walls. The wall behind the speakers was
block covered over with fake stone. This worked GREAT! With the Snell Type B's six feet apart and two feet out from the wall, they were perfect. I used Transparent reference balanced between preamp and cd player and between amp & preamp. I used Reference speaker cables. The sound was as good as I've ever heard from a set of speakers. I tried stepping down one set of interconnects to "Ultra". A heard
less tight bass and the sound stage was not as open. When I tried stepping down to Super bal interconnects, the level
of soundstage, imaging, focus and bass also decreased. I didn't care for any of the MIT at the time and I'm soory as I can't remember which models whey were. Moster Cable etc.
were ALL a joke in this test. I couldn't hear a difference between ANY of their cables. My friend borrowed all of these
Transparent cables to try in his system. We could not hear a difference in ANY of the cables in his system or room.
He had Infinity IRS beta's, VTL 300MB's, My Krell 20i and Adcom monoblocks. The Krell 20i also had no significant improvment in his system. His gear was on a third floor attic maybe 7.5 x 16 x 24. My conclusion is that the room
is paramount in importance. If your setup doesn't sound good
already and you try changing out cables and experience
a minimal effect, your room is probably the problem.