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7500 for USED cables? Are they joking?

I've been out of high-end audio for about 8 years, and the thing I am most struck by on my return is the apparent acceptance of power cables, interconnects and speaker cables that cost as much or more than heavy-duty high-end components.

As a now-outsider of sorts, this really looks like the Emperor's New Clothes big-time. Especially power cords, considering the Romex that delivers the A/C to the outlet isn't exactly audiophile quality.

Are people really paying $500 and up for wire? Is this foolishness of the highest order, or is this what people now believe it takes to extract the last percent or two of definition from their components?

What happened? Even buyers of what are now considered "modestly priced" cables would be laughed out of the professional audio world, so why do audiophiles think they need something better than was used to make the original recording? MOST professional recording engineers scoff at the difference between microphone cables that cost $19.95 vs. those that cost $49.95 -- most anything higher is rarely considered at all (the most expensive microphone cable might be $125 for a 20 foot run, and it's laughed at by most of the pros).

I'm not criticizing -- I'm too stunned to draw any conclusions -- I just wondered if anyone has given this much thought.

(At least I understand the home theater revolution -- thank heavens something came along to save the high end manufacturers, although it makes me chuckle to think of someone spending $30,000 to watch the Terminator. It's OK with me.)

Thank you for your consideration,

Mark Hubbard
Eureka, CA
mark_hubbard
clueless
763 posts
 
I think Sean said it all.

Wire is not wire and we cannot measure everything that makes a system sound good at this point, but the price put on cables cannot survive any intelligent look at their design parameters. Too many folk look at cables as some mystery tweak when there is less "mystery" in cables than any other part of the audio circuit. What is especially unfortunate is that in the cable discussions so many throw up their hands and argue that measurements and numbers don't matter at all. This is throwing out the design with the bathwater, so to speak, and moves us all in the wrong direction as far as improvements in audio are concerned and leaves everyone even more available for the endless marketing hype. Just recently there was a post where a guy was advised to buy $3,500 worth of wire when his cd player and speakers totaled 5k. I'd never walk in that store again.

Sincerely, I remain
flex
292 posts
 
I am playing devil's advocate here -
What about running the numbers, that is, the real ones on running a small business within a niche market. If your main business is cables, and you have to pay engineers, marketing people, distributors, factory upkeep, expensive measurement and assembly equipment, test room construction etc, how many cables would you have to sell at a realistic pricepoint (say $200) in order to break even. Now what if you increase the price to $7000?
It seems worthwhile to me that someone stays in this business to research cable issues. What may have happened is that competition for the small number of audiophile customers has been driven too strongly by too many 'manufacturers' seeing too much profit available for too little research effort.
psychicanimal
1,738 posts
 
Remember the Absolute Power Cord? What happened when it was introduced about a year ago? The Voodoo priests went ballistic! How could a cheap Chinese made cord outperform them expensive cables? What a riot!
bishopwill
369 posts
 
Since I replaced the lead sinkers on my fishing line with high quality ferrites I've caught more fish and bigger fish. More importantly, they taste fresher, without any haze or glare to obscure the fine nuances of flavor. Overall grain and harshness are reduced, as well. Where I used to reach for the tartar sauce, I now use only a spritz of lemon.

And don't tell me to ABX them, either. I know what my taste buds can taste!

Happy cabling!

Will (who uses good but not terribly expensive cables)
marakanetz's avatar
marakanetz
5,473 posts
 
I would lookup into US history rather than critisize such absurd with the cables.

It is all come from here where the all freedom marketing and business begins. Understand me right that marketing business advances and it's all about how to sell. You might manufacture or buy somewhere(in most cases) a piece of $hit product, invest money into the advertising and sell or re-sell it as a greatest stuff in the world -- just have a guts to skillfully describe it, place it in the nice box use the right colours etc...! People learned in US to sell promises and hopes that initially cost nothing(no building materials used or spent). This is the country where the real business was born.

In our addiction environment believe it or not wires are the most profitable components if skillfully sold on the market. It's done by psychologically convinsing people that they improve the sound and/or it's done in terms of fasion.

As to HT Someday I would want to get a cut from that business since to my knowledge rich folks spending arround 5K to the specialist just to assemble components that cost far more than $30k. It's kind of a fasion right now rather than someone's addiction(fasion by definition is the first derivative of market) to assemble a $100k HT system in the new house's dedicated room.

For those who likes math:

d/dy(market) = fasion

So folks if you spend $10k for a wire, it's OK because it's a fasion just like you buy Armani suit, BMW and it's cool!:)

Mara
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