why do people feel the need to buy expensive cable

All drawn wire is drawn in one direction. Not two.
Now it may be there is some small tiny near impossible to to find reason that due to the way wire is created.. IE drawn through a die, that the claim of directionality may be true for all wire drawn through a die.
Now I remember ’cast’ as being a claim to advantage by a certain audio company. Perhaps they are right. and drawn wire has a problem?
In steel, it is certainly apparent that being rolled does change the properties of the metal. Is this also true of Copper when it is drawn?

The old luxury car analogy again . Poll 100 random people on the street with the question why does a Rolls Royce cost more than a KIA . You will get a answer from everyone . Show them a picture of a $100 speaker cable and a picture of a $30,000 speaker cable and ask them why one costs more than the other . They will not have an answer . Tell them "your" reason why you think there is a price difference and they will look at you like you are crazy .

elizabeth - All drawn wire is drawn in one direction. Not two.

But that doesn’t make the wire directional from an electrical conductivity perspective.

"" But that doesn’t make the wire directional from an electrical conductivity perspective. "" probably for a normal ’scientific’ analysis.

But perhaps from a audiophile listening to the last tiny fragment of possible hearing acuity.. there could be a difference and a possible measurement no one has found yet?

I personally am not saying there is. But no one can say with absolute certainty(with the current state of the art) that there is NOT.

There are clear evidence about grain in copper/crystal lengths making a difference in the quality of sound performance.
Something no one in audio thought of seventy years ago.
Maybe there are still internal structure mysteries of the copper we have yet to understand.

Photons don’t like traveling against the grain. The drawing of wire distorts the metals crystals near the surface, where most of the signal travels. Haven’t you ever seen the surface of copper wire under a microscope? If you shine a flashlight down a porcupine’s back the light will be less distorted when shined in the direction of the quills. See? That wasn’t so hard. Mystery solved! Whew! 😛