Great post, Al. I agree with your positions. I have always maintained that the speakers should be the highest priority in any system, and I agree with your comments on cables as well. I happen to agree with Robert Harley's suggestion that cables/interconnects should cost no more than 5% of a total system budget, no matter what that budget may be. IMO, all other parts of the system are far more important.
Which Cables Are of Most Importance?
In a hi-end system, McIntosh, B&W, which cables will give me the most bang for the buck between IC's, speaker, power and HDMI? Which cables are most important and which are least important? Will concentrating my $$ in any one or two cables give me the most bang for the buck?