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In college I witnessed an amazing test of personal preferences by some students of the associated graduate school of business. The testers had about 20 brands of cigarettes with them. They asked for volunteers who smoked, and asked each of 3 volunteers which brand they liked most, and which brand they disliked the most. The testers also had one volunteer who smoked anything, but thought he could pick out various brands. The testers blindfolded each subject and gave each of them puffs from the two brands that they liked and disliked, of course without identifying the brands. They asked the volunteers to name what they were smoking. The volunteers who had a strong brand preference could not tell the difference between brands! One guy couldn't believe it, and insisted that the testers were fooling him. The volunteer who smoked anything could indeed identify many brands by flavor. He said that he liked some more than others, but usually smoked whatever was available or whatever he could get free from his friends. The testers confirmed something from marketing theory. People with strong brand preferences were the most affected by image and advertising and were the least able to sense a real difference. They formed a strong brand preference in part because they needed a guide to something that they could not directly sense. Ironically, people who actually can sense a difference in products are usually unconcerned about small variations, even when they have preferences. This is probably true about cables. People who want status from their systems, but who really cannot tell the difference in sound, are motivated to buy the most expensive systems and cables because they don't want to make an embarrassing mistake. People who can really tell the difference are not as concerned, because they hear all cables as being different in some ways, and so they have the personal freedom to buy the ones that are adequate, or the cheapest ones that sound good.