why do people feel the need to buy expensive cable

After 17 years as an audiophile, the key is honestly to try lots of different types of cable at different price points, because the results are so system dependent. In my pretty respectable system with a Levinson amp and preamp, Revel Studios, PS audio PWD, the best sounding interconnects and speaker cables came from Patrick Cullen at Cullen Cable, and thats after trying several $1k+ speaker cables and interconnects. In previous systems over the years, I compared boutique budget cables of those days to high end stuff and the high end stuff won, so you just have to be open minded and trust your ears.

Geoff - The word "expensive" is relative to the rest of the system, the speakers/amp/preamp/sources. $10k on cables is not expensive if the rest of the system is worth $100k. However if the rest of the system is worth $12k, then $10k on cables is very expensive and would most likely not be the most efficient money spent in terms of improved sound quality per dollar.

In my system, I think its expensive and inefficient to spend $5k total on cables, which is where I'd be if I spend $1k on a single set of interconnects. I can get more SQ improvement for the same money elsewhere. But that's of course for my system, thus the need to be open-minded about different levels of cables, results will vary for different people. I also have a dedicated power line for example, that might change things dramatically in terms of how cables respond.