Do you really need ultra expensive cables?

When I listened to a system with expensive Transparent Cable the thing I noticed was that it was just allowing the music to come through .I thought this was what neutral ,eant .There was no coloration except for what the system had in it for components.

The downside of it was there was a veiling of vocals which I interpreted to be from the amplificatio.Beside that fact I thought the system to be highly musical,but I could never live with that signature of vocals which I assotiate with Mif-Fi gear.

Neutrality I thoink should be what is aimed for in cables.If you can accomplish that then you can pickup where there might be component problems which can be eliminated.

At $3000 for the cables that is what I would like from cables and if I can find that in less expensive alternatives then I want them.Within reason that is.

The Cables I am using at present are neutral ,but I feel there might be better where Bass is concerned,but I will narrow the reason that is down.Getting closer everyday.

The Mids and Treble regions are spot on.Decay is the best I have experienced yet in my system. I think slight lack in Bass is due to my amp.Will know more when my new amps get here.

You don't need expensive cables, but you do need good cables. Unfortunatley, the good ones tend to be pricey.

I've owned $100 pair of Tributaries silver coated copper ICs. I found them to have good bandwidth, quality on par with PBJ, but very warm and slow to be quite forgiving. In resolution if nothing else, they were no match for AQ Ruby or my other more expensive ICs, at least in my crappy, cable-dependent system. I suppose most people's systems are pretty crappy too. Twl, do you think Tributaries would sound the same as Sistrum in your crappy system? There's a lot of overpriced cables, for sure, but there is better and not as good.

Cables are a necessary evil and I see way too many people spending big bucks on cables that would be better spent on a better CDP or speakers....10% is a good round number for wires....

Ohlala, I don't know for sure what the Tributaries would sound like in my system. I do know that the Sonoran sounds very neutral and detailed, without the unnatural warmth of some other cables I tried. As for the price, the Sonoran is not real cheap, but not real high either. I think it is a pretty good value for a cable.