Life expectancy of Interconnects & Speaker Cable?

The life expectancy of your cabling may be dramatically, and abruptly shortened, if that new wireless system that was advertised on A/gon a few weeks ago takes hold.

I believe that it is a digital transmitter/receiver set up, operating in the 2.4 gig range.

This is the second time I've seen it, I think it's mfged by some tech company on the Pacific Rim. They are supposed to be displaying at the CES

I'll bet it won't be the guys who adapt to it first ( because of the sound quality), but the ladies because of its WAF appeal

I can see it now.... you come home from a hard day at the office, and your significant other greets you with...."Hi honey I threw out your (10k Transparent Ref's) cables and replaced them with these neat little black boxes

URGE TO KILL....bear in mind that ANGER is one letter away from DANGER

I still have a circa 1992 Ensemble interconnect I like alot. What's there to deteriorate? just clean the terminations with Kontact.

About 20 years ago, I saw a cable that had to be charged with freon. It was about 2-2.5" in diameter and had what looked like a grease fitting where you injected the freon. The idea was to keep the cable as cold as possible for the best sound. The rep said that they would need to be recharged, or topped off, about once or twice a year. I think the retail on them was around $2500 back them. I never got a chance to hear them. They weighed a lot; it took two of us to carry them into the store. I guess $2500 is not that bad today, but back then you could buy a car for under $5000.

As far as cable life goes, I have a pair of Esoteric's that I purchased about 20 years ago, for about $200-300 that still sound incredibly good. Every once in a while I do the recable thing, but I just keep putting that cable back in the system. I do agree that you should clean the contacts about once a year. Don't forget to clean the connectors on the equipment also.

connectors can get dirty/corrode and may need cleaned.

In my oppinion (and others) cables will degrade over time. There will be oxidation over time, as no insulation is truely air tight (at least in the long run).
Also the more you move around with your cable, the more it will tend to "crack" between the crystals.
So what is average lifespan? According to VDH you should expect around 10 years.