Who thinks $5K speaker cable really better than generic 14AWG cable?

I have absolutely no doubt that the cable pundits speak the God’s only truth as THEY see it or THEY experienced it, i.e. Cables do not matter

Ok..... fine ..... no quarrel or disputing their experiences and resulting opinions, and I would not even try to challenge their points of view in any way.

But that nay-sayer subjective opinion is also absolutely no basis for any pontification expanded to a blanket generalization as fact or circumstances.

To wit, Similarly, here is the 180 degree opposite counterpoint argument as witnessed by the several thousand independent witnesses to the exact opposite effect that cables do matter , and the experiences of these masses in a large public audio expo venue was considered sufficiently profound to the extent that it was so reported in a quality magazine by an audiophile hobbyist reporter.

http://novo.press/taves-consumer-electronics-show-2014-now-we-have-a-ces-north-part-2-by-george-de-s...

Nordost

I had a chance to sit in on a couple demonstrations in the Nordost room, giving my feet a well deserved break. I’m very familiar with the benefits of high quality cables and use a full Nordost Heimdall 2 loom with my reference two-channel setup. That being said, I always find the Nordost demonstrations to be an “ear-opening” experience. Michael Taylor from Nordost demonstrated the significant sonic benefits of replacing an OEM cable with a Nordost model – in particular 1) a swap of a single USB cable, from OEM to Nordost Blue Heaven ($250/2m), to Heimdall 2 ($500/2m) and; 2) a swap of a single RCA interconnect, from OEM, to Blue Heaven, to Heimdall 2, to Tyr 2 and finally Valhalla 2. Along with convincing the audience in the room that cables DO matter, I’ve now got the bug to upgrade.

THE POINT

I was there at the TAVES 2014 expo myself and concur with the conclusions of the mag reporter .I found the same result with A-B shootouts of many contenders and pretenders ranging from cheap to expensive in my own system.

 Ok..... So what?

These cable war posts are just a tiresome, never ending, oft-repeating, and purely conflict incubating opinion troll forum Posts that are never going to be any kind of influence to either camp.... full stop. ....each side and their experiences and resulting experiences are vastly different with no basis for either side to claim victory.

why?

simple.... as already highlighted in a prior post, the pros and cons of high end cables are entirely system dependent,

A repost...
its not just about raw material price...

ODINS EXPLAINED AND REVIEWED
http://www.stevehuffphoto.com/nordost-valhalla-2-the-importance-of-cables-in-high-end-audio/

http://www.theaudiobeat.com/equipment/nordost_odin.htm


http://www.soundandvision.com/content/nordost-odin-cables#c68okKGhtPBGbdrT.97

THE Highlights extracted from the above

(1) THEY WORK, BUT THEY ARE NOT FOR EVERYBODY AND THE REST OF THE SYSTEM IS PRESUMED TO BE IN LINE WITH THE ULTRA-HIGH-END STRATA OF THE CABLE .

You could easily spend six figures to connect all your gear with these cables, so the big question is how much improvement do they realistically provide? They've garnered glowing reviews in the audiophile press, but I contend that any improvements are most noticeable when the rest of the system is similarly ultra-high-end—anything less will drown the effect of the cables in other problems. But if you've got the audiophile itch—and the scratch to match—I'm willing to bet you can't do better than Odin.

(2) THEIR HISTORY IS UNIQUE.

Nordost came to the field of audio cabling in a rather odd way. The company was founded in hard science -- developing and manufacturing cabling for ultra-high-precision aerospace, aviation and medical applications. Somewhere along the line a clever Jack decided that the same technology just might be the proverbial cat’s meow when applied to high-end audio. Whoever he was, he was right, and the company now makes cables for every wallet -- from the bargain-basement Best Buy shopper to the enthusiast who owns a penthouse overlooking Central Park or Malibu Beach.

(3) YES THEY ARE EXPENSIVE.

There are reasons for Odin's extreme cost. There is a lot of very high-purity metal in these surprisingly heavy wires, and a lot of it is silver.

-- Odin is also VERY hard to make.

--  The micron-level precision tolerances necessitated by the design result in a crazy-high scrap rate.

-- There are also nearly ten years of research and development in this product, and that investment of man hours has to be recouped.

603 conflicting and highly personal value judgement sourced totally  biased posts so far .....and counting...

This thread was destined to sink from the very start with reference to  WIKIPEDIA's definition as follows

Internet troll

In Internet slang, a troll (/ˈtroʊl/, /ˈtrɒl/) is a person who sows discord on the Internet by starting arguments or upsetting people, by posting inflammatory, extraneous, or off-topic messages in an online community (such as a newsgroup, forum, chat room, or blog) with the intent of provoking readers into an emotional response  or of otherwise disrupting normal, on-topic discussion, often for the troll's amusement.