As per the title
- < 5%
- 5-10%
- 10-20%
- 20+%
0 voters
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I started this thread because back in the day the thinking was put 10% of your budget aside for cables, admittedly this was for a speaker set up so I was interested in what my fam on here spends…I’m a sucker for a nicely made cable or two (sonic advantages with my 
set up 
) so i’m circa 10% I guess.
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Technically I’ve spent a good chunk on cables. However, it was pretty much all parts and tools to make them myself. I’d put it around 10-20% of my budget. Looking into getting higher quality wire / components as I get more and more competent. But since I don’t have to buy new tools the percentage should stay about the same.
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I own some mid priced (read expensive for most people here) interconnects, but the total is less than 5% of my speaker setup. I’m currently not running expensive speaker cable right now, which is what keeps it under 5%.
On my headphones I’m still in the whatever works camp, they’re mostly about convenience and if I never listen for a difference, I’m not going to miss it.
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If I wasn’t a make my own it would be in excess of 10%. I make my own whenever I can so went with the 5%. It’s pretty accurate I would think.
You can make your own stuff (excluding the esoteric extremes) for 10 cents on the dollar (not including your own time). If you factor in your own time then buying good quality off the shelf stuff makes more sense. When I make my own, I get custom length, custom colors and custom components.
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I make my own speaker cables for my HT setup. I have purchased some relatively inexpensive speaker cables for my 2.0 setups.
I do own an expensive USB which throws the budget off completely at a cost of over $1k for that single cable.
All my RCA’s are decent quality but under $100 each. Problem is I have allot of them which adds up eventually
Only cable that has made an actual difference you can hear has been the USB in a very specific setup. Go midgrade if your stuff is worth under $5-$10k per piece. After that, the sky is the limit.
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I’ve bought from the used market for all of my mid-range cables. I calculated that based on MSRP, I am hitting about 8%, while buying from the used market kept me under the 5% category.
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P.S. Also, if this helps someone else make a more informed decision – I feel like I did not hear a noticeable difference in upgraded cables until I started using mid- to upper-tiered gear.
The order of the largest delta was probably speaker cables > USB cable > interconnects > power cable.
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