What do you mean by "better" when it comes to cabl

Well if you use the same cables all the time then you are tuning your sound around your cables. Which is fine, if that's your game plan.

Like I said, I'm lazy, it's easier for me to buy, sell and change cables than to buy, sell and change tables/arms and even cartridges. I've only changed table/arms 3 times in 12 years. I've gone through about 8 cartridges in that time frame, but I can't even guess how many cables.

"Why does every cable thread have to turn into a pissing contest for some folks"

Because the very existence of a CABLE forum is a provocation!
Cheers

Think of it, as in, I 'better' hear a difference after what I paid!!

****In other words, how does it become "better".****

1. It becomes better if, IN YOUR SYSTEM, the resulting sound brings you closer to the sound of live music. It is popular to dismiss this concept; but at the end of the day, precisely because there are so many variables, this is the only answer if the word "fidelity" is to have any real meaning.

Now, how does one determine what "closer to the sound of live" is; given how many variables there are? Answer: It's not easy, and it requires a commitment to listen to A LOT of live music; there is no shortcut. After a while, you will stop focusing on the usual variables; the audiophile stuff: one hall sounds this way or that, this engineer did this or that, my seat at the concert was at the back of the hall not the front, etc. You will start to recognize common threads: texture on a level that no recording can give you, dynamic nuance that makes very soft playing just as exciting as the loud stuff, a strong sense that what is making these sounds are humans not machines (emotion). If you put a new cable in your system, and it does more of that than a different cable, it's a better cable. Unless, what is truly more important to you is:

2. You want your system's sound to be a certain way. You simply happen to like a certain sound, and a particular cable makes it sound closer to that sound; regardless of wether it is closer to live or not. That's fine too, if that is what rocks your boat. A lot of the MUSIC is going to come through no matter what. But ....

LOTT: Kurt Elling "1619 Broadway". If you think you knew (and, like me, were a little tired of Sinatra's version) "Come Fly With Me", check out this version. Talk about different and hip. My favorite living male jazz singer. Well, Bennett, on a good day; but not too many, anymore.

Simple. The listeners prefers the sound with a particular cable. That's what most mean when they say it is "better".

Different wires might have different electrical properties that account for how they perform in a particular system. But these are not well defined or known, and there are certainly no commonly accepted standards that can be applied, so picking cables based on technical specs is laregely a crapshot, at least compared to amps, source gear, speakers. Also the differences among cables regarding sound in a particular rig may be significant, but generally less so than with the main components in teh system, which makes quantifying differences even harder in practice.

The value of certain aspects of cable design might be more apparent than others. THings like whether shielded or not (to protect against potential external sources of noise like EMI or RFI) and material used to construct the wire, for example, silver versus copper, each of which has well known electrical properties and differences that might directly translate to a different sonic signature in general. Gauge of the wire used is another that might be determined to deliver different relative sonic signatures in a somewhat predictable manner, but again truly quantifying these things is virtually impossible in practice. USe of network devices to affect the eletronic properties of the wire in a pre-designed manner is another design aspect that might deliver somewhat predictable results.

In the end, best to try/listen to a variety of inherent designs and decide what sounds or works best in each case.