I thought this was interesting (old):
A Spat Among Audiophiles Over High-End Speaker Wire
I'm currently on the fence. On one hand, we have an abundance of literature that suggests there is little effect of cables on signals in the audible frequency band in addition to literature that illustrates the existence of psychosomatic/neurological effects (placebo). Combine this with the apparent lack of evidence from cable makers to support their claims and one can't help but have a healthy basis for skepticism.
On the other, there is also evidence that people perceive sensory inputs in a vast number of interesting ways, including pathologies like being able to "taste" colors. It's also suspected that early exposure to musical training changes the brain structure in ways different from non-musicians, based on observable differences in the gross anatomy of the brains of musicians and non-musicians. It's therefore possible that some people may in fact be able to perceive subtle differences in cable designs in ways that scientific theory is unable to explain.
There's a remarkable similarity between the marketing of cables and dietary supplements. Now I think I'll go admire my silver cables while drinking some Ginko Biloba tea.
Maybe we should start a myth that curly headphone cords degrade sound quality due to being air core inductors 
Which they of course are.
