Cables-how can you be sure of authenticity?

"not blown away by it's performance".

Why would you expect to be blown away?

Given any two (or more) high quality traditionally designed cables of the same length you would have to have highly revealing equipment, good ears, and spend some time to hear the differences. If you can easily hear differences either the cable you are using now is not suited to your system or the cable you are demo'ing is designed as a bandaid for audio problems.

Personally I doubt that there is enough market for a fake cable to warrant buying and setting up all of the equipment necessary to duplicate it and market it. That doesn't mean that there isn't some rebadging (so to speak) of some ordinary and inexpensive cable, but when this is done its usually presented under the sellers name, not some famous maker. JMHO

Newbee I accept where you are coming from....my system before seemed quite robust to cable experimenting and I can also accept that my ears aren't what they used to be.

Having said that buying a highly rated and expensive cable made by one of the big names inevitably you feel as if you may be about to hear something special perhaps thats the problem.
However the reality of my situation was that I think a well-made but DIY silver cable by a friend seemed to equal the top brand of one of the most famous cable makers in the world.

It made me wonder if the cables were "real" and it makes me wonder how some sellers seem never to run out of stock of these cables yet never have the packaging.

Having now perhaps more revealing speakers I'm wondering if I should give cabling another go.

Ben, I've heard quite a few cables but I'm far from any kind of an authority. What my experience has been, with my modest stuff, is that some cables that I have listened to initially have that "wow" factor. You know, that "I'm hearing detail I've never heard before" feeling that people so ofter mention. Nothing gross (that stuff gets pulled out immediately), just a subtle, apparent, opening up of the upper mids & high end. But, after listening to it for a long time I start to realize that what I'm hearing is not the revelation of detail in the source which I can now hear because of a very neutral and revealing cable, but a cable that has been designed to create this effect, and where it falls down is that it applies this effect to all of the recordings and sometimes to their detriment. When taken out of the system, the system seems to relax and become more enjoyable. So far my experiments with "flat cables" and silver cables have been disappointing for those reasons. But, in the final analysis its all about synergy isn't it. Some systems will shine due to the differences, some will not. Thats probably more important, unless you change stuff all of the time and need a universal cable so you don't have to change it each time you introduce a new component. But it sure is a minefield out there. :-)