I often find the prices of some of these cables to be incredible. Certainly it doesn't cost considerably more to use teflon as opposed to PVC, or one grade of copper over another. Making jackets and tubes, braiding or twisting etc can have their own additional costs involved, but stuff like that is done for all kinds of cable, computer networks, power transmission, video etc, and it doesn't cost very much. The cost of designing, testing, prototyping and perfecting a design go into making more exotic designs more expensive but I can't see that these projects would take so long as to drive the cost up to these high levels. I was just looking at the Kimber Kable site this morning, and again this afternoon - they have a brand new site up and running - complete with price increases. 4VS up $1/foot, 4TC up $2.60/foot - and certainly the R&D costs for those cables has long since been recouped and the manufacturing of those is nothing new. The thing I found most laughable on their site was the breakdown for BiFocal X, its $120/foot, but a whopping $600 for termination! Who is terminating these things? The designer himself at $100/hour for nearly a whole day?
Now I can see that one company needs to keep up with the Jones' in order to maintain a certain level of reputation. If they determine that their cables match the performance of another company, they must charge a similar amount otherwise they seem like a "cheap" company in the sight of their customers, but geez, isn't this getting out of hand?
I didn't believe that cables made much of a difference as long as they were a certain quality, so I played around some, comparing zip cord to Kimber 8VS to some cheap hardware store wire that I twisted and braided in a completely unscientific way - and the cable I made myself indeed sounded terrible, and the others steps better, so I can see that there is something said for certain designs, and using quality components etc, but I haven't had the guts to lay out big dough to try the multi thousand dollar cables. Seeing how the components and designs don't warrant the high prices, I don't ever think I could bring myself to spend such a crazy amount on cables. The price is dictated by the market - somewhat like a fine wine, where it may not cost too much more to process than other wines, but because it turns out so well, it has a greater value. But by the same token, you can detect a much greater difference between a $4 bottle and a $40 bottle of wine than you could tell between a $40 bottle and a $400. I think once you get beyond the $40 bottle, its a bit crazy to spend the $400 - unless you have plenty of money. Some people have spent a considerable amount on the equipment, and can now afford to tweak with higher and higher priced cables and that's where the market is for those items. I think there really is a point of seriously diminishing returns.
Now I can see that one company needs to keep up with the Jones' in order to maintain a certain level of reputation. If they determine that their cables match the performance of another company, they must charge a similar amount otherwise they seem like a "cheap" company in the sight of their customers, but geez, isn't this getting out of hand?
I didn't believe that cables made much of a difference as long as they were a certain quality, so I played around some, comparing zip cord to Kimber 8VS to some cheap hardware store wire that I twisted and braided in a completely unscientific way - and the cable I made myself indeed sounded terrible, and the others steps better, so I can see that there is something said for certain designs, and using quality components etc, but I haven't had the guts to lay out big dough to try the multi thousand dollar cables. Seeing how the components and designs don't warrant the high prices, I don't ever think I could bring myself to spend such a crazy amount on cables. The price is dictated by the market - somewhat like a fine wine, where it may not cost too much more to process than other wines, but because it turns out so well, it has a greater value. But by the same token, you can detect a much greater difference between a $4 bottle and a $40 bottle of wine than you could tell between a $40 bottle and a $400. I think once you get beyond the $40 bottle, its a bit crazy to spend the $400 - unless you have plenty of money. Some people have spent a considerable amount on the equipment, and can now afford to tweak with higher and higher priced cables and that's where the market is for those items. I think there really is a point of seriously diminishing returns.