Cables more hype than value?

$5000 for 6 feet of power cable?! My entire rig cost that! Just dump the wall outlets and run the NM10 to a home made distribution box using hospital grade outlets and hook your gear into that. Or hard wire everything doing away with sockets and cables!

06-24-13: Noromance
$5000 for 6 feet of power cable?! My entire rig cost that!

I have seen audio rigs that cost more than my home! I have seen watches that cost more than my car! We live in an age of excess.

It is not about the price, it is about the level in sound quality you get for a certain amount you want to spend to the whole package. That is why I Always use blind auditions. I did many a-b blind tests whith cheeep cables and a expensive amp or source with a much less expensive amp or source witht an expensive cable. Then I aks what do you like more. These days the quality is so good of a few cables thay all people Always choose for the more expensive cable with less expensive amp or source. Thta is an honnest way. This is how I sell cables. Why? Because I want every person to get the best quality for the money they spend. Nothing more, nothing less. My Pass Labs X250.5 with a Purist Audio LE 2013 wins with ease of my older XA100.5 set with less expensive cables. Superior blacks, much better focus, more resolution, more control and even more 3d touchable image. I love audio so much, because I love to test. And Always looking for the best. This testing will never stop untill I die.

Indeed we do live in an age of excess. And irrationality. And psycho-OCD. I remember seeing a Peter Belt demo of the little foil triangles. I heard an improvement! The thing is, there is no way putting tiny foil triangles on the windows could have changed the sound so utterly. Something else was at play. Ever read a few pages in a book and then re-read them a minute later - whole different world, isn't it?

Bo1972, you said: "Always choose for the more expensive cable with less expensive amp or source. Thta is an honnest way. This is how I sell cables."

QED.

I'd rather spend money where it matters, better tubes, caps, amps, equipment than blow it on cables. It's not so much that I'm skeptical, it's more that it is a ludicrous expense and I couldn't justify it.

Not Always, but often it is more easy to get a higher level with exeptional good cables. Ofcourse you have to find them first. Because I still say: far above 90% of everything in audio it not that good for the money. Wenn you know those exeptional good things it is easilly to get a much higher level. I never say to my clients you have to buy this. I only say; just take a listen. Compare and make up your mind. My technical support is a person who is very talented. He modyfied many amps and sources. And yes it make big improvements for small prices. But the same about cables. The level in black what I have now I never heard this with the most expensive poweramps and sources. Wenn I do not use My Redwood and LE cables it is gone. At the end you listen to all the parts in your system including the acoustics. But wenn you use all the differentn tools well you can get a stunning level in sound. Wenn cables did not mater that much I would not use them. First I test and what to know what it can do and how good it is compared to there competitors. That is why you Always need to test many different options.