In the photo with the Ultra 550, what are those funny looking purple cables running from behind the amp? Could that be... no it can't be, speaker cables? I'll bet someone slipped them in place when Frank took his lunch. 
Someone built up that cable set for Jim, so he uses them (sadly Frank didn't make it to the show: would have been fun to meet him). The cables are showing a little wear around the connectors (at least on a couple of the interconnects), but they get the job done. Jim is not pushing esoteric speaker wire, and Dennis uses plain-Jane Radio Shack speaker cable when testing out the prototypes (or at least he was when I was over there once).
The funniest part of the show was the guy who latched onto me to ask which room I thought was best. He was pretty disappointed when I said Salk/AVA. He had gone around and handed out some of his femto-mega electro plus quantum-lynxosity power cords to some of the exhibitors and was reporting that they all ditched their power cords in favor of his and he won a major shoot-out and today and today only I could get one for only $500. Unfortunately my favorite room was magic-proof. I've heard differences between power cords, but not $500 worth, and I've been very happy with my $12 Volex cords on everything.
I did ask the guy what made his velociraptor 9000 cryo-blast cables better than others, and he noted that there's a close connection between electricity and magnetism. Whenever an electric current is moving it creates a magnetic field. They interact, and his cables have heavy magnets on the ends that dampen vibrations. That is a very accurate recounting of his full explanation.
