Are cables really worth their high price because of their geometry?

@b4icu - ALL cables have a "geometry" - it refers the manner in which the wires in a cable are situated with respect to each other inside the cable sleeve (if it has one). Some examples of geometry are...
- parallel - such as Van den Hul speaker cables.
- twisted pairs - some are tightly twisted (and often referred to as Helix) and some have a "longer" twist like some Beldon cables
- ribbon - such as TOTL Nordost speaker cables
- braided - such as the lower end Kimber Kable cables
- Helix - this term has been used by many different brands and may actually refer to some very different geometries, so as a "term" you should not think they are all the same.

Geometry, as a "term", has been around for many years e.g. Kimber has always promoted their braided geometry. But referring to "geometry" by sales people may be something new.

Good Brands mostly reveal the geometry of their cables, often because they are difficult to replicate. If a brand does not reveal it’s geometry, I tend to shy away from them.

From all of the auditioning of cables and connectors I have performed over the past few years (literally hundreds of hours), I have found that the ear is amazingly good at detecting extremely fine details, i.e. once the observer knows what to listen for. I have also found that to hear the differences requires time to allow the cables/connectors to settle/burn-in.

Unfortunately for the consumer, my approach may not be a viable option. But the one thing I tell people is - when auditioning anything - take along your favorite LIVE RECORDING and listen for venue acoustics, those little echoes and reverberations present in the background, because these are the sounds that high resolving gear/cables will really bring out

When it comes to cable selection, the terms used in the advertising literature are sometimes "misrepresented", so how does a consumer proceed?
- with the internet it is quite easy to lookup information pertaining to the brands being considered - look for diagrams or explanation on how the cable is constructed
- ask people on this forum for their opinions on a cable’s performance
- self education on the various hyperbole being used by sales people to gain an understanding.

But the only real acid "test" is to try different cables - preferably in your own system...
- maybe a store will have loaners

OR - ask a store to audition a couple of different brands, but in the best system they have.

I once asked to audition a $600 streamer in a $60,000 system - the sales person obliged and got the sale - all for a 5 minute demo. It demonstrated just how good that streamer could perform - good cables will respond accordingly.

Hope that helps Steve

ALL cables have a "geometry" - it refers the manner in which the wires in a cable are situated with respect to each other inside the cable sleeve (if it has one). Some examples of geometry are...

Teo audio's audio cables don't have a geometry, per se.

They don't mechanistically and/or quantumly or atomically possess the ability to respond or integrate with signal -like wire does.

Everything involving a liquid metal and signal, as a living breathing pair, is different than that of wire and integration with signal.

That is why it (liquid metal) has it's own wholly different areas in fundamental physics, as compared to 'wire'. Areas in fundamental physics which are, at this point viewed as almost infinitely more complex than that of wire.

Areas that remain mathematically and theoretically unsolved. Proposed and tested and math developed for some of it, but not verified by experiment. Ie, still unbounded.

Are cables really worth their high price because of their geometry?

For me, cables really worth their high price because of their sound in my system.  IMO, one's paying for someone's SKILL and KNOWLEDGE in building cables that fit's your taste and NOT from raw materials.  

I made some DIY cables that sound very very good and bested many expensive ones.   Ultimately my recipe was no match and had to open my wallet for some expensive ones.

Try tiriod wire

The lower the signal a cable carries, the more important its SHIELDING becomes. If the geometry helps to achieve that and/or reduce stray capacitance and/or inductance, then maybe it is worth the extra cost, but NOT by much. I bought a $10 phono shielded cable from Amazon ( https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B016QVZF06/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1 ) and compared it to another shielded phono cable costing in excess of $400 and there was absolutely NO difference in the sound except the $390.

As the amount of current the cables carry increase, the geometry matters less and less. In that situation about the only criteria that matters is to reduce the resistance of the wire by choosing it to be thicker.

Other than that, the rest is snake oil.