What percent of your system cost is for cables?

How are you getting sound Kelly, by connecting the center pin of a high end interconnect to a gold filling in a rear molar?

I understand if the filling is particularly large, the listener can tell if the radio station is playing regular CD's or the better quality "promo" versions.

Any truth in this?

100% i've found such dramatic improvements to my system with the addition of highend cables, ic's and pc's that i've junked the remainder of my components. i've been listening to wire alone for the past 3 months. gotta' admit i'm getting a tad bored with the repertoire. but the sound! ahhhh......

-cfb

0.0774193548387096774193548387096774

I'm a stickler for accuracy.

Lets see...
Amp 2000
CD 800
Speakers 700
Spk. Cbls Free
Interconnects 80
Powercord 300

it's roughly 11%
would be 20% if I didn't get my speaker cables free from Audioquest

I've spent approx. $16,000 retail or 31% on cables.

A whopping 4%.

14-15% of total system cost or about $7500. (retail)-- This includes about $1K for dedicated AC system. Cheers. Craig

I've spent approx. $13,000 or 29% on cables.

Wow, only 16% unless I count all the extras laying around...

I should never have read this thread. After itemizing, and seeing that I have $6K tied up in PC/Cond., Speaker, and IC cables alone, I shuddered. This is more than I spent on entire sytems in the "good old days". YIKES!

My interconnects, speaker cables, and power cords comprise 6% of the retail cost of my Basis-Graham-ClearAudio / Boulder / Westlake system. This percentage would probably drop to 2% - 3% if I took the cost of acoustic treatments into consideration.

18%ICs;23%PC+PLC;59%gear

Those are based on the used prices that I paid for my rig.
I paid $2930 used for my current setup. Actual real list price would have been $8010, based on what dealers charged for this stuff when new. Most of the gear and wires (interconnects and speaker cable) are used. The speakers I bought new at auction for a steal. The power cables are DIY with material cost of about $200 total. The power conditioner is used VansEvers Clean line 85. also add $85 material cost for a DIY "TNT Flexy rack."

The PLC (power line conditioner) is proabbly overkill for this system, but it helps since I have a ceiling fan on the same circuit. I could have gone with a Monster HTS200, but figured I just might as well go one level up and get something I liked. I hand picked wires ($100-300 new prices) that brought out the best in the system, but still bought used. It seems to be a good balance.

Used (aka what I paid)
total: $2930
equip: $1730 59%
A-cable: $520 18%
P-cable/cond: $680 23%

real live retail: (not that it much matters..)
total: $8010
equip: $6000 75%
A-cable: $1160 14%
P-cable/cond: $850 11%
gear:

my speakers: $2100
amps: $1200
preamp(passive diy) $250
tape deck $200
dac $250
transport $600
TT/arm/cart $2800
phono $1000
_____________________________
total for system $8400

cables:
panamax AC conditioner $250
VanDenHul DIY interconnects terminated with Neutrik RCA for ALL components $270. VanDenHul DIY speaker cables $75
VanDenHul DIY power cords with locking male-plugs $200
Locking Hospital grade wall receptacles for power amps $40
______________________________________________________
total for cables $835 which is a-bit bellow 10%

If I go by retail pricing I have about 20K in cables. I paid about 15K. So...using list about 30%.

I was expecting a higher number, I am running about 11% cables, it sure feels like they cost a lot more then that! ~Tim

33+1/3% = about $20K on just cabling & AC
& worth it too

System 40K
Digital IC $700
Interconnects (1pr. 20’ & 2pr. 3’): $2800.00
Speaker Cables (2 sets – bi-wire 4’): $1800.00
Power Cables (4@ 1400.): $5600.00

Percentage doesn’t mean much when you get into stratuspheric systems. Take Boulder gear for example. I bet most if not all guys using that stuff have $-no object cabling. But as a percentage - it wouldn’t = much.

In my system it works out to around 27.5%. Some might say the cables are better than the gear, but IMHO the point is to drag every ounce of sound out of what you have… and inferior cables can make good gear sound ordinary. So, I opted for the best I could afford – purchasing all as demos or used.

One consideration you might make is to estimate how much you'd have to spend on a new component in order to achieve an improvement in sound equivalent to a good cable upgrade. More often than not cabling is the less expensive means to achieving improved sound. This IS assuming that you can demo said cabling in your system, and (to use an analagy) that you aren’t expecting to ahceive Ferrari performance out of a Miata ;>)

I believe (though others may disagree) that by purchasing “the best” nuetral cabling financially feasable one can avoid re-purchasing when it comes time to upgrade ones system.

As a last comment, someone on this site once posted the observation that "we" as a group spend copious $ in order to achieve minimaly differing results – the old diminishing returns scenario… But quite astutely this gent also pointed out that it’s often a small percentage of improvement that makes all the difference in life. He used the analgy of elite athletes - noting that physical ability between athletes can often be imeasurable (percentage-wise). Yet when it comes down to performance it is these small differences which truly separate the great from the ordinary. I’d say that I have to agree.

Cheers,
Mike

28% is a good guess.

10 to 12 % is about what mine runs.

Let's try that again . . .
Here's mine:
Total 12,000
Equip 8,500 70%
A-cable 1,500 13%
P-cable/cond 2,000 17%