Bought some 14/2 “speaker wire” from Home Depot

Quite listenable, though perhaps not as extended at the high end. If someone told me I had to use the Home Depot wire I’d get along just fine.

Actual quote. Cut and paste.

Leads me to one of 4 possible conclusions- 1- my hearing stinks; 2- my fancy Analysis Plus cables aren’t anything special; 3- my system isn’t resolving enough to make a difference; 4- given sufficient gauge, cable is cable.

Actual quote. Cut and paste. Your words, not mine. Your choices, not mine. If you really are not sure which of these four conclusions, the only ones you say are possible, then its definitely #1.  

When you get better at it you will know it can't possibly be anything but your listening ability that is in question. You will not be able to get along just fine with crappy hookup wire. And you will not be getting into tiffs like this unless... wait a minute- are you trolling me? lol! Takes one to know one. ;)

This is classic case of skin effect

The only skin effect here is the one going on with his avatar.

Just fooling around. Good to know. Because so far this was looking like you're one of these guys who really can't hear any difference. Although personally I doubt I'm strong enough to endure even a minute of listening to my system through lamp cord.  

Actually the best thing about this thread is you put "speaker wire" in scare quotes. What you have is not speaker wire. Its hook up wire. Lamp cord. Speaker wire, someone at least tried even a little bit to make it sound less crappy than lamp cord. Can't say good. Just less crappy.  

When I say takes me back to the 80's, I mean literally. It was like 1989 when I started seeing things about speaker wire being about more than gauge. Because up until then the audio world was dominated by the evil idiot Julian Hirsch. A name I suspect many here do not even know, yet his technical writing in the now thankfully defunct Stereo Review influenced countless audiophiles, convincing them wire is wire and all you need is enough of it (gauge) and nothing more can ever be better. 

The vast majority of people, nevermind audiophiles just people, are monkey see monkey do. So this totally false notion goes on and on living a life of its own. To this very day there's many still duped into it, and you see them here every single day. So when some guy comes along saying he bought lamp cord and its just as good as his whatever, no its not, and its not your system.  

Anyway like I said its 1989 and some guy is saying two runs of lamp cord (shotgun) is better than one. Now this sounds silly but if you have enough lamp cord laying around its cheap and easy to try it and find out for yourself. Which I did. And heard the difference. And the rest is history. 

So that is my suggestion. Take your crappy roll of lamp cord, reel off another length of it and hook it up. It won't be much better. Hardly at all in fact. But it will be better. Which is perfect. Because what we really need to do right now more than anything else is restore your status as a guy who can actually hear stuff. Which so far is still very much in doubt. So please do try it and let us know.

OMG. Now we're talking house wiring. Curiouser and curiouser. When I used to read fairy tales, I fancied that kind of thing never happened, and now here I am in the middle of one!

OMG. Not Time Tunnel. Twilight Zone.

Or maybe he thought you were nuts for running a dedicated line while using zip cord speaker wire?

I feel like I’m back in the 80’s. The reason I know for sure its #3 is because there are no systems not resolving enough to hear the better wire. So its definitely not the system. Its #1, only its listening not hearing. While it could well be your hearing stinks too its far more likely your hearing is fine, you just aren’t very good at knowing what exactly it is that you are hearing. In other words, its listening.

For sure its not #4. That and some of the time warp comments are what make this feel like the 80’s. That’s how far back you have to go to when wire was wire. Although even they they were starting to figure out there’s more to it than gauge and other numbers lousy listeners love to bandy about.



You’ve got a Linn, and some other fine components. It could be this is some kind of challenge to my troll master status, in which case you have some really nice cables and are jerking our chain. Frankly hoping that is the case. Because otherwise, sorry, you are right about #1 and your time will be a lot better spent learning to listen.

Its not that hard, and you will be shocked how much better your system will sound with some quality wire.

Its not #3.