How much money do you want to waste?

Sugarbrie, you have actually given comfort to the enemy here. Consumer marketing is all about convincing people that they will feel better about themselves of they buy the right products. The more desirable the car, the more desirable the man. Fashionable clothes, good looking popular guy. Craig K and the wire is wire crowd are saying the same about cables, that people are wasting money on cable in order to feel good about themselves, to feel they are among the cognoscenti, to feel that they are one step ahead of the next guy in getting good sound.

Of course, some of the wire is wire crowd believe that cheap cable is just the same as the expensive stuff because it supports their self image of being smarter than the average audiophile.

I am an agnostic. I hear differences in cables but (1) will never spend a lot knowing that my room and the furniture in it make more of a difference than any cable could, and (2) I may be delusional - the differences I hear may not be real at all.

"Natalie," here are 2 quotes from your post above:

"$ spent have nothing to do with sound Quality, Period"

vs.

"My system retails for 25K so it does have the resolution to distingish"

Think about it

Sugarbrie, I drive a sports car for fun. It's almost 30 years old and I havent bothered to restore it, so I'm sure I don't look "cool" in it. But, people do choose their cars for reasons other than transport functionality; comfort, handling, convenience, easy of parking, gas mileage, storage capacity, or the pleasure of shifting through a close ratio gearbox. And people buy clothes for the way they feel and look. That's the purpose of clothing, otherwise we would just go around in burlap.

But what purpose does an audio cable have other than the function of carrying a signal?

So, Asa, I think CK (nice guy) was saying "mega-priced" cables are irrationally overpriced based on their functionality. And you say the price is based on market demand. I wonder if there is a market for a $10,000 interconnect? If they build it, who will come?

Since I cant afford the Valhalla, my world view is happiest if I believe that the Valhalla is no better than a $10 Radio Shack cable. (I would be ecstatic if I believed that I could get the same sound quality out of a $1,000 budget system as someone else's $100,000 system.) In fact, since you and I are both "subjectivists" (in that we make decisions based on our own hearing rather than a set of measurements, I guess), you can't prove to me that the Valhalla is better than The RS Gold. I imagine it probably is, since I think my interconnects are better than the RS Gold, but I'll never know for sure. Irrationally overpriced? I guess it depends on how much money you have.

Paul

I love these cable threads. If you don't, then don't read them. I also like playing with cheap stuff and have even found a $40 per pair (actually sold as singles) interconnect that I prefer to Nordost Blue Heaven and Kimber Silver Steak (and above that $200 retail price point I won't go). You've never heard of the interconnects I use, and won't hear of them from me either.

Now, I've tried that Radio Shack Gold A/V cable that John Dunlavy wrote about a long time ago. I always thought it was a good bet for an inexpensive system, but maybe not.

I recently bought a Radio Shack $25 phono preamp out of curiosity, and figured what better to use with it than the Radio Shack interconnect? The sound? Well, a lot of groove noise and grain, forget about dynamic range. So then I connected a pair of Audioquest Ruby 2's. Much better, a lot less grain, almost listenable. I've always thought the AQ Ruby was sort of dull, designed to roll off edgy transistory highs from low cost cdps and amps.

So here's the question: Is the Radio Shack cable better than the Ruby because it reveals the true nature of the Little Rat phono preamp or is the Ruby better at carrying a signal? I have a hard time believing that the Radio Shack cable is the source of the coarse and grainy sound from Little Rat. How would a cable add grain?

OK Smiley.