This is a silly hobby.

I'm afraid to ask the impetus of that analogy

A prcto exam could save his life --telling his wife the cables' price could cost his life--I am just saying !!

"Just in terms of relative usefulness this seems absurd."

ya think?

:^D

you are very polite in your observations...

I am a bit OCD myself and have fallen to the guise...

Right, silly hobby. Not at all like oneophiles who spend tens of thousands on old grape juice. Or my fishing and hunting friends who end up spending several grand to kill a fish, or an elk, or whatever. Or classic car collecting, or falconry, or spelunking, or match book collecting, or all of the other sensible hobbys.

As far as relative usefullness goes, is your system so good that it will play without speaker cables?

Foolishness is relative
If one has relatives
sooner or later one is foolish
Audio is not so bad a way to go