Are audiophiles still out of their minds?


I've been in this hobby for 30 years and owned many gears throughout the years, but never that many cables.  I know cables can make a difference in sound quality of your system, but never dramatic like changing speakers, amplifiers, or even more importantly room treatment. Yes, I've evaluated many vaunted cables at dealers and at home over the years, but never heard dramatic effect that I would plunk $5000 for a cable. The most I've ever spent was $2700 for pair of speaker cables, and I kinda regret it to this day.  So when I see cable manufacturers charging 5 figures for their latest and "greatest" speaker cables, PC, and ICs, I have to ask myself who buys this stuff. Why would you buy a $10k+ cable, when there are so many great speakers, amplifiers, DACs for that kind of money, or room treatment that would have greater effect on your systems sound?  May be I'm getting ornery with age, like the water boy says in Adam Sandler's movie.
dracule1
Julian Hirsch RIP. if you are old enough to know who he was and read his articles. Enough said
tayie - thank you for the link, I will investigate, but please respect, many here at audiogon are not engineers, myself included. So if you can say a bit more, fine. What are the main points of Hirsch concerning the current debate, in your view?

o_holter

Vince Galbo at MSB put together the following piece that explains the merits of avoiding line modulation. I use 10 gauge all the way to my isolation transformer.

http://www.msbtech.com/support/wiring.php?Page=supportHome

This wiring concept, a proper star grounding system and equipment isolation are the first steps in a holistic electrical design that will facilitate experiments showing the differences in cables.
thanks whattsperchannel. I have a dedicated high duty circuit for my sterero which works well. I tried star grounding in my system, could not quite make it work however.