I visited several “high end” audio retailers in the past year, including Star Power, Best Buy’s “Magnolia” partnership, Ed Kellum and Son (local Dallas outfit), and AudioConcepts.
All had massive point of sale racks of AudioQuest, WireWorld, and other “boutique” cable solutions that were “kept in the back”—hinting of lusciously premium options meant for only an elite set of decadently wealthy consumers to discover, only if they were REALLY serious about their audiophile credentials.
“You can get the Forest and it’ll do just fine, but I have the Vodka”
“Jim, could you help this customer? Jim’s a manager and he really knows WireWorld better than the rest of us—he’ll explain the Starlight”
“You’re spent $4,000 on an an amp—if you had a cheap amp then it would be a waste to buy premium cables. But with an amp that expensive you need a Nordost”.
Don’t even get me started on Moon Audio’s “select which Dragon cable” menu when you try to purchase some cans on their website.