All cable manufacturers claim that the tonal balance of their cables is neutral and/or that each model in their range offers the best performance available at its particular price point. In terms of how much it's possible to spend on a set of cables, the sky's the limit (see Stereophile's recommended components listing) and buying an expensive cable is no guarantee of superior performance in any given system. With cables perhaps more than any other area, the ratio of extra performance relative to increasing price is a pretty cruel curve.
Reviewers can formulate their opinions only on the basis of the results that a particular cable delivers in their particular system so, for reviews to offer any meaningful indication of how good a cable is, you need to read half a dozen by different people with a wide range of different systems, musical tastes and personal preferences. Reviewers hardly ever agree on the performance of anything and, even if they do, none of their systems is likely to be the same as yours.
As with any hi-fi component or accessory, the only way to avoid buying something that may have received favourable reviews but which doesn't deliver the goods in your particular system and which you can't then return or sell on without suffering a large loss (assuming you can sell it at all) is to try before you buy. If you can't try - in your home, in your system - before you buy then don't buy. Whenever I've bought without trying I've regretted it, as my large box of redundant cables amply testifies. Some cables I've bought and found (for me) to have been a waste of money within five minutes of installing them (and I couldn't see how they were going to get significantly better however long I burned them in).
You have to accept that it's simply not possible to try every potentially great cable, even if you're a professional reviewer. Some professional reviewers (e.g. Ken Kessler) get so many cables thrust upon them to try that they become completely jaded with the entire subject area. And, of course, what may sound better initially may in fact be just different. We've all been there.
For some years I've used Van Damme interconnects (analogue and digital) and speaker cables, principally because they're what PMC use and recommend. I use PMC speakers, Bryston amplifiers, D:AC and Bryton's 10B-SUB electronic crossover but a vintage Wadia 8 CD transport, which is very good (after 24 years!) but not as ideal a match for Bryston electronics as a Bryston CD player would be. Visitors have generally found my system to be impressive but all have agreed that its sound has been afflicted by a certain glary brightness and lack of openness.
Having tried many possible remedies to this problem, without success, I've been forced to conclude that the only solution is to explore different cables (groan). Thankfully, my local consultant (Ian Vaudin of V'Audio) has lent me an Abbey Road/Studio Connections digital interconnect and a pair of Reference Plus balanced analogue interconnects and they're great. I was extremely fortunate to find a mint condition pre-owned digital interconnect on eBay at half RRP - it was even BNC terminated (the Wadia transport's output sockets are XLR, BNC, TosLink optical or Wadia's own optical connection for use with their own decoding computers - but no phono). The analogue i/c's I had to buy new, but I got a small discount. At £2,000/pr, the latest platinum interconnects are out of the question - unless I were to get to try a pair here at home and be so bowled over by what they do that I just have to have them. But, even then, I'd have to take a deep breath.
I have no way of knowing if these wires are as good as or better than the vast range of alternatives out there and no review or any other audiophile could have told me the solution to my particular system-specific problem. But the ones I've been able to try at home and which I've ended up buying do what I need. I may even buy another pair of the analogue i/c's to go between the D:AC and the pre-amp.
Try before you buy.
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