you are the experts, power wire, rca's?

On my bench at work, I plug and unplug my RCA cables up to 20 times a day.  I have used Monster, Pheonix Gold, Esoteric Audio, I too figured hey these cables are costly, they have to be better than the cheap ones.  If I got 6 months out of any of the brands mentioned above, I did good.  I decided to just use the cheap cables we sold, just for grins and giggles.   At least 2 years of life with the original ends.  Needless to say, I have not used an expensive cable since.  Granted I know that a cable installed in a car will not see the use and abuse that the cables on my bench go through, but if they last 4 times longer on my bench, imagine how long the cheap cables will last without being plugged and unplugged 20 times a day.

I used to sell the Monster when I worked at a big box store because that's what I was trained to sell.  Knowing the prices we as employees got them for, I had to convince myself that they were worth it to the customer.  Now that I'm not there anymore and not force fed to sell "THE BEST", I'll use the cheaper stuff any day.  I agree, if it's installed properly, then almost anything you use will work and sound just as good!