Are cables really worth their high price because of their geometry?

@williewonka

Hi, I'm not certain you ever heard of, or are familiar with, a certain HPC named interconnect type cable that was produced/marketed by Madrigal (Levinson) way back in the early mid 80s?
H standing for helical, P for planar, C for copper. Yet, HOW is it actually constructed? 

Well, it has an inner centre/core of a very thick like fish-line string about 1/16 inch ø of (I'm guessing) teflon.
Around this is wound tightly, helical, a very thin foil like, some ⅛ inch wide copper foil. Followed by a dual (or tripple? layer of helical wound telfon tape.
Now in the opposite direction, wound helical is the negative conductor, followed by the second insulation layer of teflon wound tape. This is followed by the screen, of a fine mesh 'sock' and then all covered by some type of light grey shrink sleeve. 

All this is some VERY unassuming looking cable, but the efford of criss cross helical winding of every delicate (planar conductor) foil and teflon insulation material needs to be seen to be believed. 
Then appreciate the skill, by use of silver solder connected XLR plugs to these delimate foils, is quite something in deed. 

So how about the sound presentation? 
Well, it sure beats every thing IC I ever had in my system, including my last, Transparent Music Link Ultra XLR, this by a really most *noteable* degree in trebble, bass, and overall clarity. 

This is the most elaborate construction I've ever seen - and it truly works.
 
Don't ask me about the original cost. It must have been rather high, and looking almost puny and very unattractive, pencil thick only - not a marketable smash hit for sure.

I guess that's why they didn't make it for more than a couple of years - if even that long. 

But - the best IC I *ever* had in my system. 
So... CONSTRUCTION MATTERS - BIG TIME, in my learning. 

@b4icu

Wow, taking about a strong opinion, I say!

Colour me daft, but I still possess 3 kinds of speaker cables, in my system since a VERY long time, and always coming back to it! A Straight Wire WaveGuide, using teflon insulated solid copper wires 4 each for plus and minus, wound around a teflon string type centre core ~2.5mm ø , both ends using good quality (Furutech) cable shoes.

Nothing soldered, which earlier on was mildly degrading performance, since very hard to get good solder joints even with a high wattage solder iron.
Something I really only learned after de-soldering! 😒

Second, a very noticeably DIFFERENT sounding set, also 5 foot long, pure silver strand litz (many strands) clear ABS coated cable.
Rather bright sounding, ok tight bass but ~puny~ midrange, to put it quite simply.

Third, thicker copper strand ± same gauge as the silver cable, again using waxy ABS type insulation but seperate round strands, red and black pigmented ABS, running next to each other straight, but all embedded in cotton fibres! (damping?) and finally coated in a white PVC outer layer.
Not as bright as the silver litz, but not as coherent sounding as the StraightWire, which sounds overall more natural by comparison.

I had also listened/tested in my system a *very* elaborate construction Kimber copper SC, about 1½ inch thick! with lots a of ’fancy’ inner foam damping etc. and found no real difference to the StraightWire. At all.

So, in my learing, speaker wires, different makes and constructions, *can* absolutely sound noticeably different - yet some, even of mightily different design/construction .. don’t necessarily do so. 
Ergo... it ALL depends. Why? 🤔
That’s another story. 😊

PS: I do not underestimate the influence of the speaker’s x-over, design and construction as all has an influence too, and of course NEVER MIND your power amp’s damping factor! 🙃

@williewonka

As to 'anti-cables' I had some tested some time ago, that were offered to me free of charge for a trial periode, 1-2 weeks. 
Seeing them, I right away had a suspicion they were made up by some not so very professional folks - do they give franchises to some 'operators' ?!? 🤔 

In any case, they were made up (rather crudely) of two different thicknesses of lacquered transformer wire and ever so terribly stiff! with very cheap banana type connectors, and badly fitted to boot. 

The sound... not very coherent and quite bright - in my system, and apparently a *very* long time of burn-in required. 

This whole 'episode' reminded me more of a scam than anything else. 👎

But - I can imagine, also given the most affordable price, some folk will find them A1 OK, now who am I to argue about it ? 🤔😏

@b4icu

So the difference in resistance, if I read you correctly, in any speaker cable is the ONLY determinant of its sound quality. 
Of course we are not in need to look further into the damping factor, as always the same power amp and also speaker/x-over is used. Right? 🤔

So in this my mentioned case, the cable with the second lowest resistance sounds the worst, the silber litz with 0.2 ohm. 

The copper braid in cotton bedded, the second 'worst' has 0.1 ohm resistance (as allways one only conductor). 

And the best sounding cable, the StraightWire has at 0.3 ohm the highest resistance. 

The DF of the Pass X350.5 is about 700,
and the 3 way Burmester 961 has a linkwitz type x-over... but none of that playes into your equation. If I got your right. 

Something does not mesh with my present learning, looking at your very simplistic argument. At all! 

So, we're either not sharing the same hearing, or some other unknown influence is at work. 

Differences of ~100 milli-ohms at such a high damping factor, being the cause of such noticeable SQ differences, really? 

So, me too, let's agree to disagree 👍✔️

@pesky_wabbit

+1, thank you! 👍 😉

Michélle 

@djones51

Ever so agree with what you say.
At least you seem to have the knack using words that pass the moderators.

I hadn’t, by mentioning the possible influence of a hearing aid in assessing the recommended results by e.g. advising battery/starter type automotive cables.

Been there done that some 25 years ago - but actually have moved on since that time, as the results proved there was no perceivable change in SQ. At all.
Eish! 😏
Michélle