why do people feel the need to buy expensive cable

-
Now hear this

Hmmm.

What do you guys (no women here right ? ) think stands out the most in the above ?

a) The hairstyles
b) The fashions being worn
c) How about that nice listening chair
d) the gear (speakers)
e) maybe the placement of the chair in relation to the gear (speakers)
f) how about the price shown
g) something else maybe ...

the blank look on his face.

he still doesn't hear her.

8^) Bingo

Just a cartoon sure, but the message to me is powerful - this dude has some serious endorphins flowing ...
I run every morning and by the end of the run, I have a nice endorphins release. Its all downhill after that until I can recreate this release later in the day with another activity. That's the drive for me. I look forward to my music for this reason. This is a phenomena "the endorphins release" that for me personally takes place in Music Lover mode. Not in Audiophile mode (Audiophilia nervosa)
If I am dissecting the music into sounds highs, mids, lows (like when setting up a room) there is no release. Setting up a room is a lot of fun, but its like a project , a temporary thing; till I can get the balance working in the room to trigger the effect - for me.

Do I hear differences in cables, interconnects, wires ? Hell yeah. But once I have achieved the above, I know "usually" to stop and enjoy the music. Other hobbies also keep me honest to myself. I happen to live in a climate that has real winter. I need Music to help me get through it. The dwellings in order to deal with frost have full basements. You can go pretty crazy with a hobby like this if not careful.

Going forward if we ever move house, my experience tells "me", I should look to capture the above with as little outlay as possible since this is all about myself.

This probably means I will will be selling off some wires, cables, interconnects down the road. It is in my personal interest to therefore hear good audiophile stories about how cables did good things for them. :^)

Just sayin' - imo..ime

btw - I have yet to find a better definition of "Nearfield" than that Pic.
That Poker Face (blank look) is also a great tool for all married audiophiles. Known my for wife 30 years since I was 23.

Happy Listening (with whatever cables help to get the endorphins rolling for you... )

:^)

Geoffkait - I'm afraid it's not that easy. I have heard systems that did not reveal differences in cables. Who knows why?

r u referring to your own system ?

I have had two manufacturers of amps/pre/phono's, both EE's (Electronic Engineers) sit in my listening chair and listen to music.
They both heard differences when I changed out various cables. This included gear running balanced and se signals. Interestingly , when I first reached out to them about their products, they told me cables don't matter. One of them didn't even offer power cables with his gear, because "my customers usually have their own power cables". My opinion is these manufacturers don't play in this space and quite frankly, I think that admitting to customers that cables can make a difference, might imply some kind of weakness in the gear. This totally ignores the fact that The Room and power going into the room are both Alpha over the amp/pre's/ phono's......and everything else in there too.

twwritg

-
-
lol - just saw Calvinj's last post :^0

11-26-15: Maplegrovemusic
you guys are still equating price to quality , or being good ? It is fine to live in a fantasy land . Those of us in reality realize price and fancy jackets do not provide sound . The natural elements of the earth inside the cable do. So why charge someone a ridiculous amount for these elements ?

More materials, cost more and there is more opportunity for mark up. No one disagrees with that. It has also been my experience in my room that the fancy jackets/layering does have an "affect" on the sound depending on the application. Here is a personal example of this

In this picture are two of my

personal phono cables

The one on the left is a custom loom made for me, to my specs.
The one on the right is my Purist Audio Venustas cable.
The Purist Audio cable costs 5-6 times as much (maybe more now - 8^0 - as my custom loom, and it is used with the stock wiring that comes with a tonearm.
Connects to the back of it for those not into vinyl here.
My custom loom is a straight shot. The custom loom plays in a different league in my room. More immediacy, bigger pipe of sound, blah, blah, blah....
Now if I was wire crazy I could have 5 or 6 custom looms made up with different wire types to match the cost of one Purist Audio Venustas.
The tonearm's design allows for changing out this loom in 10-15 minutes.