Larry the cable guy
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Well played!
Metaphorical Larry from the OP, not Your Larry.
I’ve bought good quality cables, and built high quality cables with good component parts. Most cables were purchased used or deeply discounted. I’d guess my cable collection (power cables, digital cables, interconnects, and USB/ethernet cables was around 8 - 10 percent of my system cost. I actually have significantly more money invested in regeneration and power conditioning equipment.
You can build a real nice Furutech power cable for $200.
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I made my own RCA and XLR interconnects using quality connectors and Duelund DCA20GA wire. I made my speaker cables using Duelund DCA16GA wire. I have tried dozens of other options costing up to $10,000 per set and still come back to my own cables.
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For someone wanting to experiment with higher level cables the Dueland based ones are a safe bet. If you are not comfortable making them yourself then there are several options on A’Gon and Ebay for pre-made ones.
That Duelund cable looks interesting.
So, there’s an ebay seller in Detroit who makes them into pre-made RCA interconnects.
His 16, 20 and 26 ga shielded cables are all the same price. (Basically $150 for a 1-meter run.)
Any reason to select one gauge over another? (@speed-racer says he uses 20 ga for interconnects and 16 for speaker cable.) Why not the heavier gauge for all? When is the lighter gauge preferred?
I’m at roughly 20-25% of retail of the components including the power plant(s) for interconnects, power, and speaker wires.
Of course that doesn’t count the ones in the box that have been swapped out for newer, better, etc. 
If your talking the PS Audio DSD and did not buy it retail you can spend crazy on digital, power, and analog cables and hear every penny spent happily. Only the optical cable changes to this device don’t appreciably change its sound. You can easily spend double what you have for the unit and feel you got your monies worth.
I bought all of my Dueland IC’s from CJ and did the speaker cables myself.
Yes, way more bang for your buck. I’ve had 2 Furutech power cables custom made by Chris Venhaus of VH Audio using the Furutech Alpha OFC copper cable treated with NanoLiquid and Furutech rhodium plated connectors for around $400 each (3 ft). The connectors alone for each end are around $150 each.
( power cables developed with Furutech’s newest formulation of gold and silver Nano Liquid. The molecules in the Nano Liquid are so small (approximately 8/1,000,000th of a millimeter) that they finely coat the conductors and smooth out microscopic surface irregularities that can affect signal transfer and impedance. This means, greater contact area for the conductors.)
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+1 on Furutech!
If you are including power cables, interconnects, and speaker cables I would throw out a rule of thumb of between 10 and 20 percent depending upon resolution of system. Arguably you could include a power plant in the formula and then the figure would jump another 10 to 15 percent.
These are the cables I used. Paired them with Fi-11 connectors. The 12 gauge FP-S032N is easy to work with. The 10 gauge FP-3TS762 was much harder to build. Ended up using the larger Wattgate connectors since I had trouble assembling using the Furutechs I had. Cable was too stiff and large for the Furutechs.
I bought the cable and some of my connectors from Chris at VHAudio, Great place to do business.
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I used to think cables is cables and don’t matter much, but that is a little too simplistic. You are right about diminishing returns. My modest system won’t benefit from a PS Audio power cable. So what can be done to improve interconnects?
Speaker cables can be improved by making the wires bigger, so a move to 12 gauge from 16 gauge might make a difference even on a modest system. Keeping the speaker cables away from electrical noise in the audio spectrum could also make a difference, so cut another couple of holes in the cardboard backing on your cabinet. No cost.
RCA analog cables might be improved, but I’m not sure. Experience shows marginal difference. Grounding the turntable, though, is very important. Fifty cents.
USB cables shouldn’t matter much, but the “digital” signals are bit-wise and not buffered, so there is no margin for error correction in USB audio. Maybe better cables could help with bit-jitter and maybe you could hear the difference.
Anyone who thinks Ethernet cables impact audio quality doesn’t understand how Ethernet works. Ethernet (which really means TCP or UDP) is a packet, or frame-based, system with buffers, error detection, and optional error correction. There is no such thing as audio jitter caused by Ethernet. If there is such a thing as Ethernet jitter, the buffers remove it. If the cable is bad enough to cause audio stutter and stoppage, then OK, replace the cable with another cheapo cable, but if the connection works at all, it’s 100% good. Fancy cables will get you zero improvement over any basic cable that works at all. Of course, some people can hear a difference and if they have the money, it’s OK to buy a fancy Ethernet cable.
Bottom line: spend $50 on speaker cables, spend $20 each on RCA and USB interconnects, spend $5 on ethernet cables. Use the power cable that came with it. That should handle any system costing less than $5000.
I have an audiophile wi-fi cable I’d like to sell someone. Just $100. Any takers?
On ASR forum your thoughts get takers,but here none,zero. Did I say zero already?
You need to find yourself another hobby or forum to mess around. Did i mention ASR already? Go ( back ) there 
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What you’ve said is just plain rubbish and has more holes than swiss cheese . And this is coming from a cable agnostic.
Connect the speaker cables seen in the photos at will in my system and, with me blindfolded, I could tell them apart every-time! It is on the same level of going direct from the DS DAC to power amplifiers and/or inserting a preamp….I can nail it “every time”! But that said, I have been present when cables and fuses have been swapped and I personally didn’t hear anything significant that would make me want to invest in them. It would be akin to looking at a famous work of art in a gallery and studying the brush strokes with a magnifying glass! I want to stand back and see the whole painting.
Anyway, your statement will be shot down in flames but I expect that’s what your hoping for ; )
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You can tell a persons age by their stereo cables:
20-30 years = Lamp cord speaker cables, Walmart interconnects, stock power cords.
30-40 years = Monster or similar speaker cables and interconnects, stock power cords.
40-50 years = Blue Jeans or similar speaker and interconnects, Pangea or similar power cords.
50+ = Speaker cables might cost more than the speakers, interconnects might cost more than the components, power cords cost more than a used car.
At soon to be 65, I am very happy to be able to say that I enjoy the hobby enough to appreciate the cost of finely made high performance cables and what they are hooked to. I just reluctantly joined the $1000 USB cable club and dammit it is better than the $500 one it replaced. I have slowly and carefully been climbing the cable quality / cost ladder and so far haven’t felt the need to go back to a previous cable. Life is good. 
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You could probably substitute “budget” or “system cost” for "age ; ). I bet the cable percentages remain fairly constant for most folks.
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I’e never looked at it from that perspective. I think that it has more to do with disposable income. I’d never finance audio as that would be a road to ruin of a good credit rating. Quality cables do make a difference, but you don’t need to go bankrupt. There’s a wealth of knowledge out there and makes for some good reading. I have new speakers coming next week and my Siltech dealer is giving me what I paid for my speaker cables on trade. I’m bi-wired and my new speakers are just a pair of terminals that don’t take bananas without modification. So I’m moving up to spades with a reasonable investment. Yes, I’m in the $1000 dollar USB club but I bought my Siltech USB years ago, at a great price, that I can recoup if I want to move on. Like anything, if you buy right you can usually get most of your money back on a move. You can’t go wrong on Iconoclast cables too. If you wan to move on there are people readily waiting to snap them up.
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