$8000 speaker cable? Oy vey!

This is the wonder of digital. Bits is bits. As long as the bits get from here to there, you don't care about the distortion. That's why I was perfectly happy buying the $10 generic optical digital interconnect vs. the $40 Monster optical interconnect. If it works, then it works.

At the point where you're willing to spend $8000 on cables, there are so many other things you can spend that same money on and get significantly better sonic bang for your buck. For $8000 you could do some serious treatment to your room: window drapes, rugs, or even ugly sound-absorbing foam. If you want to go nuts, you can replace your dry-wall with magic sound-absorbing wall construction.

I wouldn't think of going beyond generic heavy-gauge household 120V electrical wiring for speakers until I had already spent the big bucks on making my room sound good. And, since I'm not interested in rebuilding my house around my stereo (no, that's for the next house ), I don't see the point in buying esoteric high-end gear. The odd angles and other acoustically-lacking architectural features of my house will kill any benefit that I might have maybe observed from gourmet cabling...