Cable Costs Relative to System

I agree that cables are the marked up more then any other product. I also think that they are one of the best bangs for the buck and should be considered as a component. Good cables are a must.

Metaphysics- I've done some of the comparisons that you asked about with the Coincident IC vs Nordost Quattro fil vs Kimber Select Silver vs KCAG vs FMS Nexus. All are excelent cables, but the Coincident and the Kimber Select Silver came out on top. They are quite different in their respective signatures, but in my system, preferrable to the others. I hope to compare these with FIM Gold IC in the future, but a relocation has temporarily curtailed my audio endeavors/spending. Ugh.

I almost always agree with the comments submitted by Trelja, and we are again in complete agreement. Unless you guys that are spending thousands of dollars on wire have entirely different hearing than me and my wife(I've been an audiophile for 40 years, and she has the most acute hearing of anyone I have ever known), or your listening environment is subject to lots of RF and other interference, you need to rethink your spending patterns. If you want to make a significant difference in the listening quality of your system, I suggest you focus on the room. Improvements to the acoustics of the listening area are often THE most signficant. You might think about acquiring a digital room conditioning preamp, such as the TacT, or have architectural changes made to the listening room. Just my two cents worth.

Add another vote to those who spent 20% of their system's MSRP on cables. A combination of HT ProSilway, AP Oval 9, Illuminations D-60, Synergistic Master Couplers and BMI Majiks account for one fifth of that spent so far. This ratio was reached almost completely by accident. Funny how the 80/20 rule creeps into so many aspects of life...

Still, while ratios of this nature are good as rules of thumb, the real proof is the end result. In this case it's the sound. Having started with old, heavily used, cheap-to-start-with cables I experienced first hand the difference decent wire can make. Being relatively new to the world of audio nervosa, the memory is still fresh and not overly embellished or diminished by the passing of time. That this perception doesn't originate from "psychoacoustic" phenomenae is borne out by the observations of learned associates (aka friends with good hearing and a knowledge of music). Without prompting they almost always picked out the differences in the sound after a cable upgrade. Mass halucinations aside, of course. Needless to say, my experience, like many of yours, has been that good cables have proved to be a worthwhile investment.

But isn't there a point of diminishing returns? Shouldn't the real question be about where to draw the line? If one spends $100K on a system should $20K really go on wire? Logically it seems that at some point on the spectrum connectors, wire, craftmanship and design don't, maybe even can't, get better. Especially by the magnitude necessary to justify the additional cost. Can $20K really buy more than $10K judiciously spent? Is there really some value there aor are the extra dollars just padding someone's bottom line?

My gut, which, lacking a great deal of experience, is all I have to go on, says at very least a lot of caution is warranted regardless of the price point because the issues are the same at the high end as at the low end. Lots of snake oil salesmen and a few purveyors of quality products providing real solutions. As the ancients wrote, "Caveat emptor." As I say, "Try not to make PT Barnum right."

I forgot to mention in my previous post that the current issue of "Listener" (march/April) has a feature article on interconnects, "Our Favorite Audio Cables". Ten of their writers/contributing editors discuss their favorites, etc.