I am basically interested in the same argument as this post, from a few days ago..
I am an Engineer in a different field, but did some electronics at school. I worked for 10 years in the field of automatic warehousing, and collaborated with Electronic Engineers. I am quite capable of reading a spec sheet, or what a Standard requests. I have worked in industry and know how things are priced. Like the post I linked to I was under the impression that studios and live music use cabling and connectors that are robust, but not hugely expensive.
Mogami seem popular and I have used their cabling in my HiFI, with QED connectors. I have had cables made up by a professional supplier in Rimini, and the costs have always been below €100. I just thought it prudent to have studio grade cabling, and I respected the Naim minimum length speaker cable advice. I have seen HiFi shops selling at least one of my same cable configurations at a mark up that is several times what I paid.
Being curious I wanted to try and understand why some cables cost thousands of Euro’s, rather than less than a hundred. I found at least one of these hyper expensive cables, using connectors that can be bought retail for €30. The cable was not very high specification, according to the Standard they quoted. As Malcolm McLaren would say “it’s a swindle” . Let’s call it “The great Rock and Cable” swindle.
The Shunyata Research Sigma-X NR costs around €5000. What are the components in this cable justify this price? If I use their most expensive components I can have a Furutech cable with filtering made up for €600.
I am pretty sure from some reading that I have done that beyond a very low expenditure, these hyper expensive cables rely on a proven scientific phenomenon called the Placebo Effect.
Googling “Cable snake oil” will throw up a ton of interesting article written by qualified people. (Sorry no links I got told off for linking, and I am not sure what we are allowed to link to. )
Here is just one little snippet
It’s true that cables can measure differently in the lab. You’ll see small variations in capacitance, resistance, or shielding effectiveness. But in most real-world systems, these differences are so tiny they’re completely drowned out by bigger factors: your speakers, your amplifier, and especially your room acoustics.
Double-blind studies—including those by the Audio Engineering Society (AES) and sites —consistently show that listeners can’t reliably distinguish expensive cables from good-quality budget ones. The rare exceptions? Extremely long runs, very high-impedance loads, or severe electrical noise—all scenarios almost never seen in typical living rooms.
### The Psychology of Hearing: Placebo, Expectation, and Bias
So why do so many audiophiles swear they can hear a difference?
Simple: human psychology. The placebo effect is real, and so is confirmation bias. When you spend hundreds (or thousands) on a “miracle” cable, your brain wants—needs—to justify the expense. Every new listening session becomes a treasure hunt for subtle “improvements.”
I’ve lost count of the times a client was convinced their new cable “opened up the soundstage” or “brought new detail to the mids,” only for a quick A/B switch (with their eyes closed) to shatter the illusion. As Ethan Winer famously demonstrated in his Audio Myths Workshop, our senses are easily fooled—especially when marketing hype is involved.
> “If a cable company can’t show a measurable improvement, why should you believe your ears alone?” – Ethan Winer
Or this:
The June 14th 2025 email from The Absolute Sound featured a brief promo piece for a $34,000/ 6 foot power cord! The headline reads “2025 AC Power Cord of the Year: Crystal Cable 20th Anniversary Infinity .” OK, more of the same nonsense from a publication that lost its credibility a long time but it was the opening sentence that prompts me to write once again about the BS that gets peddled as truth in high end audio.
I have to assume this a writer’s technique to make those of us who have never heard “sonic differences” produced as a result of changing power cords….including “elite” ones …feel stupid or lack the ability to evaluate and hear high-end sound reproduction. Well, after spending most of the past 50 years as an audiophile, recording engineer, mastering engineer, university professor of audio recording, builder of several state of the art listening rooms, and someone who has listened to systems in my own studio powered through “elite” power cords, in my humble opinion – and the opinion of virtually all professionals with my background – this claim is absolutely untrue. It is a lie.