could somebody help me out on the benefits of expensive phono and speaker cables?

Here’s a real life example. At the Tenor/Rockport exhibit in the Tuscany Hotel in Las Vegas in 2001, best of show that year at CES, the system consisted of Rockport Hyperion speakers ($100,000) that were biamped with four Tenor tube amps ($100,000 total), and Jena Labs Pathfinder and Shunyata cables (estimated cost of all cables $10,000). Thus the percentage cost of cables in that system was only 5%. Actually less than that since I didn’t include all the isolation stands (5), the CD player and the Audiokarma break-in device that was used to break in all cables. Or the cost of the huge 40x50 room to put it all in. Of course $10,000 for cables is nothing to sneeze at for most working stiffs.

Khiak
Do not waste your money on expensive cables. Me and my friends have spend thousands on expensive cables to our speakers, and there is this gentleman ‘b4icu’ from previous forum calculated the correct cable gauges for the amplifier we used. We bought 4 AWG copper wires from Amazon as recommended by him with spade and banana connectors and DIY the cables. For $200 between the 3 of us, we have 3 set of speakers cables. We are very happy with the DIY cables to our speakers.

>>>>>Everything is relative. It all depends on what you are comparing. Some cables ARE better than some others. Just because thick cables beat some other cable doesn’t necessary mean the reason is due to the cable thickness. There are lots of variables involved.

mapman, no offense, but it appears your reading comprehension skills have deteriorated even more than I would have thought possible. One imagines an Amish upbringing might not encourage math skills or reading comprehension skills. No offense to Amish or any other religious groups is intended. I’m sure they have their strengths. Or maybe it’s something in the water where you are, who knows?

But let’s see, who’s getting rich, shall we? Let’s take a simplified example. Cable manufacturer no.1 sells very expensive cables for $5,000 each. And he sells 100 cables in one year. Not everybody can afford $5,000 cables, but 100 audiophiles per year can. Plus Cable manufacturer no. 1 has to compete with many other cables in that price range. But he knows that going in. Cable manufacturer no. 2 sells his cables for $500 each so will sell many more cables per year, let’s be generous and say he sells 1000 in one year. He also has a lot of competition.

So, what do we have? I’m not including costs of materials, labor, advertising, etc. just gross sales. Cable manufacturer no. 1 grosses $500,000 per year. Cable manufacturer no. 2 grosses $500,000. Looks like everyone is doing pretty well. I should have gotten into the cable business. But the seller of really expensive cables doesn’t gross any more than the guy who sells moderately priced cables. So that part is possibly a myth.