I was wondering when this slight distinction would be pointed out.
I wouldn't buy any cables for my systems from any regular retailer for the reasons stated by the OP ...they sell over priced garbage. For the record I prefer MIT (impedance matched to the gear the cables are connected to), Nordost, AQ, and a bunch of DIY types of my own design. There is no way I could build a MIT cable for less than what they cost retail without having to rip apart the CVT terminators or the impedance network boxes and hope that finding parts for the build don't cost a small fortune (highly unlikely)..that being said a lot of expensive cables are no better than the decent quality cheaper stuff....the hard part is identifying the good stuff from the mediocre. I have also found over the years that MIT has managed to deliver the most consistent performance across all types of gear I've used, vastly outperforming regular but in the context of this threads subject , some really expensive name brands. I found AQ to be rather ordinary (the IC's anyway) while the AQ speaker cables (Slate, Mammoth for example) to be good performers, certainly better than 12 awg stranded copper sold in most box stores in bulk (50 ft for 60 bucks for example). Anyhow such observations are highly subjective ........this argument is likely the oldest and most contentious of all of them in the audiophile community, the controversy started with the first real half decent cables built back in late 70's when pot metal jacks/speaker terminals, paper thin unshielded ICs with horrible RCA connecters (molded plastic) and lamp cord sold in bulk (18 awg for god's sake) was all we had. Viva la cable, connector,speaker post, etc revolution I say
Peete.