How much money do you want to waste?

Yup, Craig and others, I sold my cables and replaced them with tulip bulbs. I find the sound more colorful with better bloom, but, in the winter, much more recessed.

Thanks for playing the straight man... ;-)

Todd

Sugarbrie, I drive a sports car for fun. It's almost 30 years old and I havent bothered to restore it, so I'm sure I don't look "cool" in it. But, people do choose their cars for reasons other than transport functionality; comfort, handling, convenience, easy of parking, gas mileage, storage capacity, or the pleasure of shifting through a close ratio gearbox. And people buy clothes for the way they feel and look. That's the purpose of clothing, otherwise we would just go around in burlap.

But what purpose does an audio cable have other than the function of carrying a signal?

So, Asa, I think CK (nice guy) was saying "mega-priced" cables are irrationally overpriced based on their functionality. And you say the price is based on market demand. I wonder if there is a market for a $10,000 interconnect? If they build it, who will come?

Since I cant afford the Valhalla, my world view is happiest if I believe that the Valhalla is no better than a $10 Radio Shack cable. (I would be ecstatic if I believed that I could get the same sound quality out of a $1,000 budget system as someone else's $100,000 system.) In fact, since you and I are both "subjectivists" (in that we make decisions based on our own hearing rather than a set of measurements, I guess), you can't prove to me that the Valhalla is better than The RS Gold. I imagine it probably is, since I think my interconnects are better than the RS Gold, but I'll never know for sure. Irrationally overpriced? I guess it depends on how much money you have.

Paul

Well, Craig you seem to have given everyone a lot to talk about.

I guess I agree with you Paul. While that Quattro Fil would have been worth it for me even at $1600, I would not have paid that for a new one. The rest of my interconnects are all under $350 at new prices (Siltech, MAS and Van Den Hul).

As a self-labelled "quasi-objectivist" I would like to say that admitting a difference in cables because of the empirical evidence of your own ears even when measurements don't show differences is not necessarily an non-objectivist act. It merely means we are measuring the wrong things. Our ears may be the only measuring device we have right now that can tell the difference. We may develop other measuring devices that will confirm what our ears tell us or we may decide if we can hear the difference, what else do we need?
BTW, Asa is correct. A cable is not "overpriced" if someone is willing to pay that price for it.