Recently up in the Loudspeaker Forum, Tom Steele posed a question on a thread (that is now locked - before I even got back into town and had a chance to respond - bummer) about subwoofer cables. He asked how a cable could cost $80 to make. Most here should have an idea about where I stand on exotic cables and their exorbitant costs. Since I make all of my cables, and I usually like to cover the wire in something a little more pleasing to the eye than black rubber, let me try and break it down on a per foot basis using my basic speaker cable and 75 ohm interconnect cable:
Speaker Cable
Fixed Costs $16
4 GLS Locking Bannanas (I get them off ebay on a $3.50 averger per plug) $14
Shrink Tubeing $2 (I end up using about a foot total)
Variable costs $3.24/ft
Cable $1.74 (based on a Garden Hose sized 10/4 (261/34) cable from Lowes )
0.75" Techflex Braid $1.5 (I usually use two colors - at $0.75/ft each)
Cost for 1 foot - $19.24
Cost for 10 feet - $48.40 per cable - so double it for a pair for a speaker
Interconnect
Fixed Costs $8
2 Locking RCAs (same as above,I get them off ebay on a $3.50 averger per plug) $7
Shrink Tubeing ( I use about half as much as a speaker cable) $1
Variable Costs $1.00
Cable - 75 Ohm 23 awg stranded conductor, quad shield -$0.44
0.24" Techflex Braid $0.56 (again two colors at about $0.28 each)
Cost for 1 foot - $9
Cost for 4 feet - $12
I use a rather inexpensive polyester braid. Cable manufacturers may use a cloth based braid which can cost up to $5 per foot - but I really doubt it.
Anyway, it is very easy to get an $80 per cable price when you factor in labor and advertising and profit margin.