That’s a view. It’s a view I don’t share.
I guess you could use the same “cost plus” basis to assess the value of all sorts of things but in my not-so-humble opinion that’s missing the point.
- This house can’t be worth anywhere near that much: I mean how much do bricks actually cost these days?
- That painting cost how many million? Crikey, he’s been dead 200 years. Paint must have cost nothing back then
- Tiffany diamond ring costs how much? What’s the hourly rate for miners and for diamond cutters these days?
- That Rolex watch: you’re kidding! It’s a watch FFS. How much can the components actually cost? What do designers earn these days?
- This Lamborghini….
- You get the thrust
Market value should be about performance not cost of components plus labour.
In Capitalism as we have it, the price is set as high as the "market will bear" to optimise the profit oif the makers. So if they can make more profit from selling a few via advertising making it seem 'special', that's what they go for.
Some markets are also in essence, 'captured', by the 'suppliers'. Housing in the Uk is an example. The big housebuilders have openly said they only build when they can make 20% or more profit. And they 'lockstep' on this. i.e. no real competition drives down that margin by building more.
There is no magic ooofle dust. If a given cable 'costs' (sic) 1000 UKP/m and 'sounds good' the chances are that someone else could make it for sale at, say, 20 UKP/m, but would then get a lower profit to use in part for their advertising campaign. 8-]
People buy the label and the image when they splash out high amounts. KK routinely compares this with superb watches or expensive wines.
If you're happy to do it, fine. Your ears, your money. Personally, I stop worrying when moving my head half an inch or turning the level up a dB makes a bigger improvement. Having done both listening tests and measurements in the past, I now just enjoy the music, quite happy with cheap cables I got from CPC/Farnell on drums.
YMMV if you can afford it. I use the money to buy CDs, etc.
That said, I also now use a DAP and headphones a lot. So the only cable is the one from DAP to headphones. And, yes, the cables that came with the phones *did* alter the sound. They were also too long for mobile use, and absurdly fat and heavy. So I got some simpler leads made by someone via PFM. These work fine. Measurement showed the fat fancy ones had a remarkably high end-to-end resistance due to the way they were made. Which then could be expected to interact with the headphone's frequency-dependent impedance and 'change the sound'.
Maybe people experimenting with cables could also experiment with adding small amounts of series inductance or shunt capacitcant or series resistance. Such components are cheap and may give you improvements (i.e. changes to your taste). Main snag for some may be soldering, I guess.