Speaker wire is it science or psychology

I have a wonderful friend with whom I went to high-school long ago. He is now a Geneticist teaching and researching in Switzerland. Although he has quite a distinguishing science career, when we talk like old friends he is able to put that aside and be real. He tells
me there is no "proof" God exists, and I ask him to prove God does not exist, he stops, and thinks about it.
While listening to my system last year, he noticed and
commented on the "huge" speaker cables. Then he said..."I don't know what you have done or why, but I want my music at home to sound as good as yours. What should I get first?" I made the wire his last priority:
If I start with the wire I can't hear the difference until I remove it. To DTITTLE in answer to your response
of 3/08...Rotel vs levinson amps. I tried that and it did not work. I had a Levinson 383 100W in my wife,s listening area. Took it out, put in a good Classe Cap 150 , more power; and tried the levinson in my office system. When she came home, I had left her favorite music running...the amp NOT visible. An hour later she
mentioned there was something wrong with the stereo.
Like what? I asked. She said she was not sure, but that the body and soul of the music seemed to be missing.
The fullness was gone. So I told her I would check into it later. Our eleven year old son also mentioned it.
Because all they were changing was the CDs, they never noticed the Integrated amp switch until later. When my wife saw the Classe and asked a few questions.... you can guess the rest. " I want the Levinson Back ASAP!" My 20 year old son
is my usual guinea-pig. He never knows what I have done or if I did anything at all. I just ask him if he hears any difference. Since he has nothing to gain or loose, his answers always help. The problem I have with blind tests is I WANT to hear a difference, my family does not care. They just know what a good system sounds like and they could care less why. My wife plays the piano and knows good sound. Although she would love for us to spend our money elsewhere, once she has listened to a better sounding piece of equipment...there is no going back. Dtittle, if you can't hear the difference, consider yourself lucky and spend that money on something else. My scientist friend has the same problem now with his family...and he can't go back either. I bugs him because he can't see the scientific proof, but he accepts it as truth. We all love our sound
don't we?

Now that we are into apologies - I wish to thank the kind words of my supporters here and apologise for my perhaps over-passionate response to what I felt was an unwarranted attack from Jostler. I keep getting suckered into these debates whenever I see the so-called scientists getting on their high horse when they seem to have little to be proud of in respect of their contribution to the audio field for the last few decades. I have seen how sites like Audioreview get bogged down in this stuff due to the likes of Mtrycraft. Perhaps I stupidly think that I can stop that nonsense destroying this site if I pounce on it fast. Perhaps I should take Dekay's advice and just ignore posts like Stevemj's. As for you Jostler, I merely disagree, and I really don't have a problem with that.

Come on Redkiwi, don't you apologise, don't be more Brits than those "back home" and please don't continue now with an "understatingingly"- polite attitude. Your posts are wonderfully written and argued and the underlying passion ( a passion we all share, be it in different shades and hues )
makes it all alive and vibrant. ( Yes this ad ad hominem with a greeting to down under )

Thanks Detlof, and your post means a lot to me. Being not in control of my passion I often feel a bit of regret when it lets loose and I am left hoping people recognise it for what it is and tolerate it. This is not me feigning humility, just explaining that my emotional outbursts are often followed by sheepishness (no sheep jokes please).

I must agree with some of your comments here. I think you can tell the difference between a $1 and a $350 cable. However, the value of diminishing returns kicks in rapidly has the more expensive the cables get. My best friend used to work for a company that manufactures cables for Cardas about 8 months ago. Cardas would send the connectors and her company would provide the cable and the assembly. Dealers charges about $750 per meter for golden cross. She told me that her company normally pays only $7 per meter (without connectors of course) and her company would then charges Cardas ~$21 a meter. If you do the math, that's a hell of a margin for Cardas. Bottom line is that cables do make a difference, but what I don't understand why is it that cable company decide to charge so much? $5000, $10,000, what's the basis for that? Perhaps cables is 10% science and 90% snake oil. As the some cable prices continue to sky rocket, wouldn't it be cheaper to go down to your local jewelery store and pick up a meter of 24 karat gold chain? Why have gold plated, when you can have the real thing! Just be sure to wrap your 24 karat gold chain in electrical tape so no one gets shock!