Why pay so much?

Well said kqvkq9.
I have been an audio enthusiast for many years. Now that I'm retired I find that the factor of diminishing returns plays a big part in the selection of gear and cables. It is my concern that when it becomes more about the high price attached than about value and great sound, the few manufactures out there that make very good sounding and performing equipment, at a reasonable price, will decide the best way to market and sell their equipment is to add a ghastly high price tag - not so good for those of us who can't afford the price of a luxury auto or small house to spend on a nice audio system.

......just let this post die 

this thread is specifically about speaker wire and the OP mentions $70,000

who thinks that you should spend more than $10k on speaker wire to improve the sound in your system?

who thinks you should spend more than $1k?

and mea culpa, I have kimber on mine, but the dealer threw it in when I bought my Maggies and I'm too lazy to swap it out for zip cord

randy-11

I used to work in 94107, that's by PacBell in San Francisco. The guys at Monster Cable used to come in all the time laughing about their new "Turbo" this and and whatever wonder marketing scheme they could come up with. Of course it all sounded the same. That was, what, 25 years ago and nothing has changed. There is a guy I went to High School with that has had a High End  shop forever. One day I was there talking to him and these guys came in complaining about how some megabuck cables they had bought were "Too bright". He gave me a look like it was time for me to get lost while he tried to finesse the know nothing types that had more money than brains.

Now everybody has a right to spend their money in a fashion that they see fit. It's nobody's business, not really. The Diamond industry for instance makes zillions selling what is a rather common mineral through tight control and marketing. HiFi marketers have every right to fleece a public begging to be taken. The market is there after all.

That doesn't mean that those that point out the obvious are somehow misguided or "trolls".

I use zip cord myself. I've tried lots of fancy pants cables in the 40+ years
that I've been doing this . That covers many hundreds of amplifiers.
Imagination is a hearty part of this hobby. Imagination is good.

So is realism...