[2bigears]

  internet advertisement I just saw,,,, 30,000.00 dollar speaker cables. Who the heck buys those ?  Good lord I had no idea.   

[toocool4]

You should check out Music Interface Technologies (MIT Cables).

https://mitcables.com/product/acc-268-revision-2-articulation-control-console/

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[respected_net]

I know some speaker cables are very expensive: Nordost Odin 2, MIT, Masterbuilt, Skogrand, Synergistic Research SRX.  And I am sure there are more.

[twitch54]

  Who the heck buys those ? 

why all the 'cool kids' of course ! Translation - audio fools !

[2bigears]

  112,000.00 whoa !  Billionaire stuff. 

[toocool4]

Let’s just say someone has already spent $1000000+ on a system, it’s then no big deal to spend $100000+ on cables. After all it’s only a small percentage of the total system cost.

[2bigears]

  it's relative, of course. Would love to hear a million dollar rig. In a sonic well treated room. I bet it would be mind blowing.

[twitch54]

it's relative, of course. Would love to hear a million dollar rig. In a sonic well treated room. I bet it would be mind blowing.

I have, I'd rather take the money and travel the world to listen live in some of the great concert Halls !

[Letitroll98]

Ever more reasons to buy those Power Ball tickets.  I can't imagine that any BOM or research budget could possibly justify $111,000 speaker cables.  So you're paying for design performance, that no other speaker cables at a lower price can reach these levels of sound quality.  Which begs the question, what kind of electronics and speakers does one need to fully realize the expenditure?  Are you going to have a massive improvement from your Adcom amp?  MIT also makes a nearly identical product for $68,000, how much better is the higher priced spread?  Cables a millionaire can't afford, oh my.

[mix4fix]

Let’s just say someone has already spent $1000000+ on a system, it’s then no big deal to spend $100000+ on cables. After all it’s only a small percentage of the total system cost.

(VAC has entered the chat)

[viggen]

irony is at some other audio site right now are making fun of us for purchasing cables costing more than 3 figures

[toocool4]

People can make fun all they want, only people that cannot afford makes fun of what other people spend on what gives them pleasure. I am sure there are people making fun of what we spend on our equipment on here too.

I use Spectral / MIT cables, do they make a difference? Yes they do, are they worth the money only the purchaser can say if it is worth it to them.
I use Spectral / MIT cable only because Spectral Audio Mandates Spectral / MIT cables between the amp and speakers else warrantee is void should I have issues, rather than risking a big repair bill I ponied up for the top of the line cable at the time which was that much better than the next one down the line. So for me I paid £3600 for 3 meter speaker cable and £1500 for a 1.2m interconnect cable between the Pre & Power, admittedly I did not need the interconnect well I was already in so what’s another £1500.

I think the top Spectral / MIT cable is now  £15000, so mine looks like a bargain if you can call it a bargain. And no, I do not want to try the new cable I’d rather spend the money improving something else in the system.

[2bigears]

  it's a hobby to enjoy in the safety of ones domicile lights out in total silence. Kinda cool to be sure. It's not about 'envy' as that's bad.  But what a thing it has come to. You make more $$ on a Caddy than a Volt. It's whatever the market will bear. Rich people are suckers too. Under-the-influence we all are. My little system is as low budget as I could get. But let me say,,,, at night when the grid slows, it sounds fricken crazy good. I can't imagine LARGE LARGE LARGE $$$$ systems. One must not forget The Room. Most important. 

[JLM]

Alas by the time you have acquired that kind of money your hearing will have deteriorated. 

[Letitroll98]

irony is at some other audio site right now are making fun of us for purchasing cables costing more than 3 figures

Just this morning I read an online article comparing monster cable type speaker cable, what they thought was high end, with a coat hanger, and the coat hanger won.  On a graph.  Then they did listening tests, with powered speakers, calling it a test of speaker cables, using TRS connectors. 🤣. Thank goodness there wasn't a comments section, I'd get another Facebook jail sentence.

[mrhyfy]

The audio world is full of ridiculously over priced items. 

[newzooreview]

Belden, who engineer and manufacture a range of "no-nonsense" audio and data cables, has written a white paper on the measured technical performance of audio cables and the engineering tradeoffs in manufacturing them. The paper is data-driven and the measurements are plotted in charts throughout.

The paper begins:

"Speaker and Interconnect cables for the audio range have an Achilles’ heel that must be directly addressed, or is often completely ignored. Audio cables are more about the TIME dependency of the signal through the audio band than simple attenuation, resistance, or the concept that we just need low resistance, capacitance and inductance."

https://iconoclastcable.com/techpapers/vpandimpedance.pdf

Their technical analysis is part of the marketing for a line of cables, Iconoclast, that they sell for, typically, >$1000 per pair (and several thousands depending on length).

The peer-reviewed literature on audio cables is sparse because there is little academic incentive to study the topic. However, a paper was published at the end of 2021 that corroborates the statements in the Belden/Iconoclast Cables white paper:

https://boson.physics.sc.edu/~kunchur/papers/Interconnect-cable-measurements--Kunchur.pdf

The abstract of the paper reads

The influence of interconnecting cables on an audio system’s performance is a controversial issue. This is partly because commonly measured parameters such as resistance, reactance, frequency response, and common distortions do not show meaningful differences. The present electrical study of line-level single-ended (unbalanced) analog interconnects, provides a more comprehensive picture surpassing the common specifications. It was found that uncommon time-domain effects such as reflection sequences and non-ideal capacitive behavior, along with noise, can better distinguish the electrical performance of interconnects of different grades.

Constructing cables that address the measured issues is expensive because geometry and materials matter, the work must typically be done by hand, and the cables are for a niche application so economies of scale are not available. Expensive cables are the rule when sound quality is maximized. That doesn't mean that there are not expensive cables that are a bad value. There are, of course.

[unfairlane]

" Constructing cables that address the measured issues is expensive because geometry and materials matter, the work must typically be done by hand, and the cables are for a niche application so economies of scale are not available. Expensive cables are the rule when sound quality is maximized.."


   THIS is a big misunderstanding. As with everything else, audiocables should/must be done as simple as possible. (KISS)
   Signal out must be identical to signal in, simple as that but how is it done?

   I stumbeled over some things ca 30 yrs ago that opened my eyes. There is still a lot I do not know, but I know how to make ca perfect audiocables(+powercords+digital coaxes). The funny thing is, close to noone even takes this seriously and the high-end priests have banned me off course

   

[newzooreview]

For what it's worth, the peer-reviewed paper linked above was criticized on Youtube (not in a letter to the journal's editors, following the appropriate path for academic discourse), and the researcher who published the paper replied to the Youtube criticisms:

http://boson.physics.sc.edu/~kunchur/Response_to_ASR_comments.pdf

It's worth a read for insight on the scientific method and rigorous academic processes (however imperfect).