A question about the logic of interconnect cables

why are we not soldering our cables board to board?

Practicality, as suggested above.
Otherwise, it's an excellent thing to do.
Practicality come in when you wan to, say, change a cable, or lengthen, or move the components apart or change one of the components...
...and you know, soldering & de-soldering boards will ultimately make a mess of those boards.
Plus, if the wire used is an expensive designer "cable" (say, Prada :)), you lose much of its resale value!

That's it, really.

To Markphd

Thanks for your response.. Your point about about some high end Mfgs not believing you need any special wire speaks volumes to my point. I have often felt that there should be some some scientific evidence of the benefit of one cable over another.

If one cable sounds different than another..WHY?? or are we in a big time PLACEBO effect here?? Not seeing any reportable documentation on HZ or db differences ( or any other measurements)by any of the high end cable guys suggests to me that the entire market has a credibility problem. Extravagant claims prevail in every magazine I have read.

I have tried Valhalla, NBS and MIT products and in my opinion, NBS sounded better...but this is after I went down the Valhalla expense path.

The question makes a good case for integrated systems, doesn't it??? Or better yet, powered DSP speakers with a digital interconnect to source.
I have yet to see a manuf. offer an exotic power cord with their gear. I mean wouldn't they know what makes their equipment sound best?
So many unanswered questions....

>>I have yet to see a manuf. offer an exotic power cord with their gear. I mean wouldn't they know what makes their equipment sound best?<<

Cables are system dependent. This is indisputable.

Now, for every manufacturer to take the time and test their products with every cable/component permutation is impossible.

Lastly, how would you expect any manufacturer to anticipate every listener's likes/dislikes/preferences?

Hope that helps.

there are two other reasons a smart manufacturer does not offer an after market power card.

1) it would raise the price of the component

2) it might offend other manufacturers.

it is not smart to offer an after market power cord with a preamp or amp designed by another manufacturer.

in the case of a power conditioner, it makes sense for a manufacturer of such a product to sell it with an after market cable of his design, e.g., shunyata and audience.