@andy2,
Cables are definitely worth the asking coins.
Really? Is that an across the board statement? Are ethernet cables costing $10,000 (Audioquest) "worth the asking coins?" If so, why?
Is the Siltech Emperor Crown cables at $40,000 "worth the coin?"
Or any of the others in a similar stratosphere?
I’m just wondering what metric you are using when deciding "cables are definitely worth the asking coins" and if you use any discretion in judging this, and what that would be?
BTW, some people like to respond to such questions by saying things like "a piece of audio gear is ’worth’ whatever someone will pay for it."
But the market value of something is a different question from the one being asked, which is more along the lines of "How much do you have to pay to reach a certain level of PERFORMANCE and why?’
Cables are like car tires. A car needs a good set of tires for optimal performance.
Sure. But at a certain point, the practical limits of tire design are reached, not to mention diminishing returns before that.
You can buy cables from very knowledgeable, experienced manufacturers that are vastly less expensive than the prices often charged by high end cable manufacturers. So the question is: on what grounds do you NEED to spend that extra money for the expensive high end cables?
Even if you’ve spent many thousands on expensive speakers and amplifiers, why wouldn’t cables (selected with suitable specs for the system) from a very experienced cable company like Belden, far cheaper than the audiophile brands, be good enough?