First of all, I'm not an electrical engineer! Now that is out of the way, I have some issues that I want to bring up with cables - and hopefully get some very calm and logical responces.

I used to be a cable believer, meaning that I thought these exotic designs for cables make a difference. While testing myself and really nit-picking the result, I came to the conclusion that I could not tell one way or another. So I sold my expensive cables and made a good bit of cash!

I buy some music online, mostly for LP's, through places like Music Direct and Accoustic Sounds. They have great selections, and sell some pretty cool equipment. They also sell cable. The prices on some of these cables is enough to give a guy a heart attack! Some of them are prices more that 3 50 inch plasma screen televisions! Or a small car!

Now I cannot prove they make a difference, and I cannot prove they do not make a difference, so I came up with a few questions:

1. If cables of varying design do indeed make some type of an improvement, why don't audio equipment makers implement (or contract out) the same wire designs within the chassis of a piece of audio gear? Or speakers?

2. If buying premium cables will make such a huge difference ("elevated to a new level of musical enjoyment" as quoted by one advertisement), why not include some lower level model for free with all pieces of audio gear sold? I mean, it would be good advertising, and perhaps the owner would be willing to upgrade if a difference is heard.

I just have a hard time accepting that a thousand dollar power cord, six thousand dollar speaker cables, and eight hundred dollars of interconnects actually yield 7800 dollar increase in musical clarity.

I say buy more music if one has that much to spend!

Rick