Best Sounding Speaker Cables?

I have found ribbon cables to be a game changer--easily the equivalent of upgrading my speakers, and I already had very decent cables. 

Ribbons are the wire equivalent of springs. They can be done at different levels but the basic technology is so good even inexpensive versions tend to outperform a lot of more expensive stuff that is trying to do it another way. Tekton MTM is another example. As is DBA. In all of these it is a fundamental re-thinking of what everyone else has been doing for so long that yields unusually large performance gains without having to spend a tremendous amount of money.

I replaced $6K speaker cables with $1200 Silversmith Fideliums. Now the former cables are relative junk.
Check out the Enjoy the Music review. His Fideliums beat his $20K Reference. Innovative and superb. And for $175 the Fidelium bi wire feature is brilliant.

Also a Fidelium user. Best I have ever used and not looking for anything new now.

I read the responses to make sure I wasn't going to duplicate any ones thoughts and had something new to offer.  Every piece of wire will sound different in every high resolution system before we get to individual subject evaluation and personal tastes.  The only best is the best for you that fits your budget.  You can't blindly just go buying cables to try...  you must test on loan or library loan basis.  Last I looked the lending library section of the Cable Company allowed you to loan cables for demo for a slight fee that goes towards future purchases.  When I was working on that leg if my system many years ago I did demo loans of 8 different brands of cables for speakers.  My criteria at the time, and it was 25+ years ago, was under $1,000 for an 8 foot pair.  My base pair was 10 ga OFC multi-strand Monster silver soldered to spades.   After all of that testing and mailing cables back ans forth a friend loaned me a pair he had moved on from and as soon as I turned te music on a wood stick hit cymbal and the shimmer was all that and nmore. Everything that was metal from cymbals to trumpets, sax, etc., and more just cane alive, bass tightened up and details jumped out.  I still use that brand of speaker cable today except it's 6 foot pairs and bi-wired, bi-amped.  You have to cable roll just like folks tube roll, and the same for interconnects and digital wire..  and power cords.  Put in the work and you will get the sound.

@millercarbon ... said perfectly above.

In my experience, foils get you to 80% by their nature alone. The deep mods, innovations, techniques get you the rest of the way.

For what ? A Bose speaker
  an ML CLS 2 ,  a Merlin Black Magic VSM ,  ??

@kozka  " there is so much one can discuss re audio....acoustics, mastering of recordings, preamps etc....but those cables seem like a stubborn floater that wont sink "
 AMEN to that. Stubborn floater LOL! Active crossovers, DSP, real time room correction with REW and a UMIKe, taming the bad HZ that is in every driver with DSP. Your music files and Audacity. High def drivers for your PC sound card if you go that route like I do. Room treatments and measuring to see what works. Balancing gain between drivers left to right and matching the higher DB efficiency of tweeters and mids to lower efficiency woofers without the limits passive crossovers impose. My right ear does not hear as good as the left one so for my personal music enjoyment I have one setting in the Xilica with right gain up a bit and another for the same set of speakers balanced with the assumption visitors ears are better than mine.

 The people who obsess over wire are mostly clueless about really tuning and improving WHAT THEY HAVE to it's best potential. Or they are selling wire.
  The fact that there are not more serious technical articles here though is the fault of Audiogon. You can't post pictures of driver curves nor improvements you did and how you did them. Linking to other sites for your technical evidence or info, at least in my case, leads me to visit THAT site for answers both then and in the future. Audiogon is mostly for entertainment quite frankly and that it delivers in spades. I miss Geoff's space alien telepathic fix precious pebbles stuff though.

@mahlman

I suppose obsessing about wire would be a bit silly. But the often substantial effect on sound quality of cables and interconnects is pretty counterintuitive. So folks that thought it silly and then hear the difference are likely to be vocal and somewhat evangelistic about it. I remember my first jaw dropping experience. So I guess it is not surprising some people come off as obsessed. Cables, interconnects, placement, and treatments are the bread and butter of creating a great audio system. Without them only a good to very system would be possible.

Why aren’t there more technical articles on the subject? Well I suspect because it involves so many variables that it becomes very esoteric very quickly. You have the complexity of describing the nuances of sound reproduction, the many different variables of the wire, input devices, output devices… it quickly simply becomes more effective and efficient to describe instead of attribute. The lack of technical articles is not just here, but also in all high end periodicals. It’s been that way for 50 years and pretty sure it will continue that way for another fifty.

All this Storm & Drang re:varied cables, and which are best. Yet, ‘wireless’ cables, ie usb seem on the ascendant, how come?

Hello, I had the good fortune to AB 3 speaker cable brands all within a price range of 500-1,000 USD for 7.5 ft length. Kimber Cable12TC, Nordost Bue Heaven and Cardas Parsec. I did use any measuring tools so my "analysis" (also a great cable mfr) is purely anecdotal and subjective (how do I respond to to the music). Kimber Cable was overkill for my modest system (Hegel H90, Bluesound Node 2i and Focal Electra 1080 BE (bought new in 2018). Focal's are not difficult to drive. 
Nordost Blue Heaven sounded a bit technical in the high end and did not seem to reach down to the lows as far as the the Cardas Parsec did. I went with the Cardas cable and coudn't be happier. As they became more aquainted with my components, the sound opened up. I would say they were the most neutral with a bit of warmth that interacted well with the glorious warmth of the Hegel, and spectacular highs of the Beryllium tweeter. The soundstage is, as you would expect with Bookshelf speakers, very accurate. I have the Focals sitting on top of ruggedly elegant and highly functional (and pricet), Sound Anchor stands which enhances the bass response substantially.  Good luck choosing!!  

@audiophil88 

good post... i totally concur with your findings, based on my own experience with the three cables you tried

your system is also an excellent example of an excellent system, at a very smart point of the value curve -- outstanding performance at a sensible price -- much much sonic pleasure for $$ spent

👍