why do people feel the need to buy expensive cable

"10-25-15: Maplegrovemusic
What makes an expensive cable expensive ? Is it the fancy jacket ? The Ultra rare conductor materials used (LOL) ? The fancy box they come in ? Biggest sham on us audiophile fools ! If we only knew the mark up v.s. actual costs , no one in their right mind would ever buy one ."

That can be true, but its not always the case. Not all cables are easy to make. For example, Nordost's flat ribbon cables, Tara RSC, the internal conductor layout in Cardas cables. I could give more examples, but these 3 are enough. Some of these designs are so unique, the cables need to be made by hand, and the machines used to make the cables need to be custom built. To make their flat cables, Nordost had to build the machine themselves. If you look closely at some of their cables, the level of precision and detail are amazing. When you see that, you realize how difficult some of these cables are to make.

Thank you Zd. You have just proven that there is a higher correlation between cost and degree of difficulty to manufacture, than there is between cost and sound quality.

I roll my own.

Taters,
I agree that some people buy expensive cables for various reasons that you mentioned and I know for a fact there are some that have an unlimited supply of funds and think that more expensive must equate to better sound.
On the other hand there are those such as myself that have a limit on what can be spent and in the past I have demoed a variety of cables of all price ranges and let my ears and pocket book tell me what sound I like and what I can afford.
I guess the bottom line is one can’t classify all into one category.

I recall clearly the first time I replaced the manufacturer-supplied interconnect with an Audioquest Ruby cable. The difference was obvious. I have tried several mid-line cables, like Tara Labs "Pandora" and Kimber "KCAG." Honestly, I can't discern a sound difference between the two. I mostly listen to headphones, so I would expect to hear it there. I think what you pay for in very expensive cables is the complicated way they are manufactured. If you have the means, go for it. But I don't believe you are getting your money's worth.