>I have attended 100’s of live performances which would melt down most of the elitists here. Who? Ive seen John McLaughlin 7 times - both electric and acoustic, Oregon with Ralph Towner at Amazing Grace and the ASU hatbox. How about
Frank Zappa, Weather Report, John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters, Michael Walden, Billy Cobham, Ron Carter, The Selector, Rory Galagher, Moody Blues, Talking Heads, Ted Nugent, BOC, Jean Luc Ponty (7 times), and so many others!
Wow, now I am impressed. Excellent taste in live music. Back in the day, I saw the original Mahavishnu Orchestra (the quintet) over a dozen times and even today, I look back at those shows as some of the high points of my life.
As others have said, ignore the mockers and trollers here -- Audiogon, like most online forums, has its shares of self-important, condescending Wikipedia experts who don't know when to shut up. It’s not a good look, but there’s not much you can do about that. Don't let them make you feel bad. The rest of us share your pain.
Re: your original question, I think you may have a good sense of where to go by now. It may make more sense to upgrade the rest of your components before spending that type of money on cables. I’ve experienced jaw-dropping sonic improvements from cable upgrades, but other times -- especially before I started getting into five-figure hardware -- little if any effect.
Heh, reminds me of when I was younger and I, entranced by the audiophile lore of the day, connected my hobbyist Quad ESL- 57s to one of those old Quad current-dumpers with 12-gauge cable. This upgrade from Zip cord (this was the early 70s, so don’t shoot me) changed the frequency response of the Quads so dramatically that I had to rig up a low-pass filter to make them listenable. Then, when cables became a thing, I upgraded to the first Monster products -- reputedly one of the best cables on the market at the time. And that changed the sound dramatically again. But I never got rid of that nasty high end -- the better the cable the worse it got -- until I replaced my solid-state Quad amp with rebuilt 1950s Quad Class A monoblocks. Configuring those beautiful speakers the way Peter Walker had intended & pulling out all my well-intentioned modifications revealed the sound that J. Gordon had called "pants-wetting." My first audiophile schooling!
So the point is, even with "lowly" Polks and Denons (really, not bad choices in their respective price ranges), cables can make a difference. But it’s just a toss of the dice. Maybe look for a dealer with a good return policy (I can recommend my own favorites offline if you want) and try before you buy.
Boy, this conversation reminds me about how much things have changed over the last half-century. My last pair of speaker cables cost $4000 and my phono cables almost as much. But I think I enjoyed my system more, back when my hands were steady enough to hold a soldering iron, when I was rebuilding vintage electrostatics and tube-rolling 1960s gear.
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