Best interconnects & speaker cable? I don't get it

There's always going to be a faction that conflates price with performance in any hobby you care to come up with and it's not a means to any kind of ends to speak of, audio satisfaction wise.

You're right to point it out and the confusion it engenders.

All the best,
Nonoise

The single most incredible cable improvement I experienced was very recent, replacing an old monster sigma retro balanced IC ($1000 10 years ago) with a used Tara Labs The One ($2,400 used, new, figure $3,500). It was as if I got a new bass amp (cable goes between bass amp and crossover). Hands down, a deaf man could hear the improvement.

Very reasonable observations here. Concerning cables, I just don't obsess over them after going through the "process" years back when I was looking for something that "worked" in my set-up. I settled for some quite expensive cabling that provided what I needed and ended the desire to keep looking, that until quite recently when I changed speakers and a few other things, but basically the same set-up.

Broadstone I agree completely that if you can't discern a difference, it just doesn't exist. Which is to say that you more than likely haven't had in your system cabling that offers a subjectively qualifiable difference. You certainly have a system that can differentiate between cables. Comparing cabling in a given system can be an exhausting endeavor as many offer little or no substantive improvement over long term listening, at least in my experience.

The way I audition cabling is two fold. First I listen short term, back and forth to determine if I can hear a difference. If there seems to be a difference is it a qualitative improvement or is it just different? If it seems to be a slight improvement then I will leave it in the system for several weeks. After time you kind of get used to things as they are and wonder if indeed you are kidding yourself into believing that things have improved. Then you go back to what you were listening to previously to see what happens. Did you lose/gain anything? Are the differences worth what it will cost?

I remember listening to a set of ics in my system years back that clearly, I mean to anyone with average hearing, could hear the difference. Everyone there (4 people) clearly could. The clarity was just astounding yet conversely they were the most amusical cables I've ever listened to and quite expensive. Each ic I added to the system increased the clarity and added to my irritation. I never could figure out what was going on. Cabling is one of the most nebulous components of an audio system. I agree with Elizabeth. On a final note cabling should not be a tone control but often I suppose thats what most of them are. There are quantum elements of an electrical signal as well as the other known factors of inductance/capacitance that will affect what we hear. Of that I am convinced but what IS going on? What I have discovered most recently are cables that have revealed to me what is possible in that they offer a coherence to the presentation that I had previously never before heard. Is this to say they are better than my long term reference. In one very important way, yes in that they are the first cable I have listened to where there is a clearer more natural detail without the tonal coloration I was hearing. Music seems to be happening in real time more like you hear live on the best recordings. I would say that it is on the order of a component change. I feel quite confident that you would certainly hear it too. I "discovered" these cables when I heard them in a friend's system so profound was the improvement. Our systems couldn't be more different yet the similarities in what these cables yielded in his system and mine were just unmistakable. Funny thing I just recently invited him over and "tricked" him. I put one pair of my old reference ics in the system to replace the new ones and he IMMEDIATELY picked up on it when he walked in the door.

Tube, is it a state secret what kind of cables they are?

03-09-14: Tubegroover
On a final note cabling should not be a tone control but often I suppose thats what most of them are.

I think that is one of the biggest misnomers in audio, is that cables should not be tone controls. All cables are tone controls, period. If you think that your cable is not a tone control, compare it to how your system sounds with NO cables. LOL!
Obviously, there will be NO sound with NO cables. All cables have some tonality, just because they mesh well with your system and musical tastes, does not make them "neutral", or not tone controls. It just means that you have found the tone controls which fit your gear and tastes the best.
Sure, you could always fool yourself into thinking that cables are not tone controls by tailoring the sound of your equipment which suits your cables best, and I know some who do this.....but who are you trying to fool?

All gear and cables have a tonal signature. Most listeners try to balance their system to their own personal tastes. Some like revealing cables with warm gear, some like warm cables with revealing gear, there are many different paths to audio nirvana. However, there is no cable that sounds like no cable at all. There is no way to even compare the sound of a cable to no cable at all. So to say that cables shouldn't be tone controls is just silly audiophile fluff. As always, YMMV.