$13,000 speaker cable!

Save us from Audiophiles!

John Dunlavy, who manufactures audiophile loudspeakers and wire to go with it, does think questioning is valid. A musician and engineer, Mr. Dunlavy said as an academic exercise he used principles of physics relating to transmission line and network theory to produce a high-end cable. "People ask if they will hear a difference, and I tell them no," he said.
Mr. Dunlavy has often gathered audio critics in his Colorado Springs lab for a demonstration.
"What we do is kind of dirty and stinky," he said. "We say we are starting with a 12 WAG zip cord, and we position a technician behind each speaker to change the cables out."
The technicians hold up fancy-looking cables before they disappear behind the speakers. The critics debate the sound characteristics of each wire.
"They describe huge changes and they say, 'Oh my God, John, tell me you can hear that difference,'" Mr. Dunlavy said. The trick is the technicians never actually change the cables, he said, adding, "It's the placebo effect."

I remember BBC Research Department did a similair set of tests in the late eighties and concluded that the best paid ears in the industry (with the best amps and speakers) couldn't tell the difference between 10A mains cable and very expensive OFC cable. Around the same time Practical Electronics magazine did a blind test with the editors of What Hifi and HiFi World and they concluded that the mains cable they'd taken off a lawn-mower was the best sounding cable!

With all this in mind I'd point you at previous posts;
Audiophile at I-Like-Jam and Why do people have to have their say?