I am old enough to remember when speaker cables were 18 gauge lampcord and interconnects were the cheap vinyl-insulated RCA cables bought at Radio Shack. I also once thought that buying 10 gauge Monster Cable for $1 per foot and gold-plated interconnects for $15 was outrageous and that I was gullible for buying them. Now I have High Fidelity cables that cost over $10K each and have bought special vinyl pressings that cost hundreds of dollars each, not even mentioning what I have paid for components. We have paid a price for improved technology and I certainly am guilty of supporting the exponential increases in costs to be in this hobby. I am also not sorry I have done so given the major improvements in sound. It seems as though what is just out of reach financially sounds absurd to us.
Power cords at ridiculous prices?
Seems to me there's no shortage of "black magic" out there, people spending $1000 on power cords? If the equipment you own is well designed with hefty power supplies and adequate capacitive filtering on-board, the grunge from the AC lines will be dealt with. I'm not discounting upgrading stock cords with something of a little better quality, but it seems to me spending the equivalent of a mortgage payment, on a piece of wire, makes us audiophiles the subject of ridicule by any reasonable person. Okay, I'll stand back now and take my lumps....