What's your thoughts does spending more = getting a better sound, or are their some real giant killers out there?

Not necessarily. The cables only allow you to hear the hardware so if the hardware aint up to it then no cable is going to make it sound better. I think cables are as much about tailoring the sound of equipment to a persons taste which would suggest they haven't chosen the correct components in the first place. The point of a cable is to neither add nor eliminate anything from the output of the source. IMHO this is impossible regardless of the cable cost but I daresay £10k per metre Nordost may get close. Many people will convince themselves that very expensive cables make a vast difference to their systems but, let's face it, you'd convince yourself of the same thing if you'd just spent £100k or more on the aforementioned brand !! I use decent cables from the more budget end of the scale, Atlas, and I find them to meet my needs. I think Atlas as well as Chord cables punch above their weight for what they cost. The trick is to make your own at a fraction of the cost but since I'm technically inept I'll just have to leave it to the pros.

10K for a cable? cripes, what's that all about?

I think it's mostly about lunacy tbh. Basically for oil barons to show their mates! If people are willing to spend that kind of dosh then there will always be companies only too happy to fleece them blind. I read a review of said cables years back and the reviewer actually said they were "value for money". He's obviosly not from my planet !

In my not so humble....
A good cable won't make any piece of hi fi sound better than it's capable of BUT...If you are currently using a bad one you will get an audible improvement by upgrading. ( not neccesarily a more expensive one....just a better one,pleas read on ). A bad cable is capable of stifling even a modest bit of kit.
I know I've mentioned Monster cables but really, I tried some and I might as well have put cotton wool in my ears , it muted everything so much !
No start to notes and no end. it was just numb noises.It sounded like a fluff laden stylus just before it starts to ride over the groove
What I would say is that if your playing stuff through this cable, risk a few quid on some chord interconnect or speaker cable . It WILL be worth every penny . Cobra 3 is an amazingly transparent and dynamic interconnect for about £50. Carnival is a marvelous speaker cable for arround £5.00 a metre.
I really do like chord...but I promise I have absolutely no vested interest in recomending them. I'm just amazed how I have heard them thrash expensive cables in every situation I have tried them in. I know in the current climate models of cable stop being produced as new supposedly improved one take their place but a lot of dealers will I'm sure still have these in the cellar .

Value for money? good point, I mean were talking cables, how can they be considered VFM at those prices, has it always been like this?

It seems to be a competition at the moment of how can make the most outrageous sized cabls and the most outrages prices matched to outrageous marketing, if you manage all 3 well people will talk about you product, just look at Nordost, but you know what joker, i'd just love to know how much of these mega priced cables they manage to sell.

Me, I'll just stick with my TCI cables.

I have tried a few, finished up with Chord Cobra 3's and Van Damme. I think that they just simply let the signal through. They do not try to do anything 'clever' with them. If the kit sends it, they let it through.

The main criteria I have found for cable selection is length

I'd always put cables as last, I don't think they'll make or break as system as some claim, as even a cheapo can sound good, just try and draw your own conclusions. I've never heard a really bad cable apart from QED.

ADAM.........I used to be a cable cynic until a month ago when I started serious auditioning.
Now I really do appreciate what a cheap nasty cable can do ! It can slaughter the sound of a good system !!
Don't know what your beef is with QED though ? I thought they were reasonably neutral .

I'm with colin on this one Chord Cobra 3 ...A gem of a cable.
Put it up against any under £500 and do an a - b . You might change your mind , who knows ?
I know it's tedious but please people ...stay away from monster cables.
Try some adam to prove my point if you get chance....Like listening with your ears full of water.

A few years back, I was using bell wire, and, theoretically jumping on the upgrade bandwagon, started spending more on cable, (lets start with speaker s first)

I went from some £1 a metre stuff, to QED SA, at the time it was a huge improvement, and at 5 times the price, I believed it should have been, although I soon found that they were bass killers, and there are lots better cables around at similar prices.

I then spent £20 a metre, but, it was a better all round purchase, later, a couple more brands at around the same price, brought subtle differences to the game, different, not necessarily better.
I was then offered a prototype from a large cable company, which had a retail in excess of £100 a metre, it was in fact lots better than its cheaper cousin from the same maker, but worth the money? In hindsight no, especially as I have found a small one man company, whose cables are more than a match for most hi end wires. (In fact the ic's came first, but Ive already typed all this, so see the latter piece as to how I came by them!)
The brand is Silver High Breed, and my outlay for speaker cable was around £50 (2 x 2 1/2 m) as compared to around £500 previously.

Similar story on ic's.
I had worked my way up from QED stuff at £30 a metre, thru a few from Chord, Chameleon, Chorus, and Anthems at £330, right up to Black Rhodium Oratorio at £600 !
I discovered what I considered to be a giant killer in NVA Sound Cords, at something like £15 for 0.6m, and didnt think I would bother on the swapping front any longer, until that is, someone from another forum mentioned the Silver High Breeds, and at such a stupidly low price, I had to take a punt.
To say they were a revelation is an under statement, and I even use them in place of a couple of far far more expensive coax cables doing dac duties.

So from £30 to £600, and back to around £20 ish, proving you dont have to spend the price of a small car on cables!

I could tell you about how a pair of £4 ic's were chosen over £550 Chord Signatures at a hifi shop, but Im tired so Ill save that until another time.

Who is the in the picture icehockeyboy? is it MrT?

don't know him, is he an actor?