Do speaker cables really make a difference ?

@jasonbourne52 you never let go, do you? don't you get tired of repeating yourself again and again and again? it's both pathetic and hilarious.

Of course they do, just like everything else, power cords included (big time).

Do not listen to the naysayers. All they do is repeat stupid stuff they have read in 1973. Maybe they once tried some cheap-@ss Monster Cable (LOL) and didn't hear a difference (no kidding?). In a decent system, swapping cables can be as audible as swapping amps, and sometimes more audible than swapping DACs. Of course, going from multi strand OFC 16 brand A to multi strand OFC 16 brand B won't necessarily give a huge difference, sometimes it does, sometimes not. But compare your favorite lamp cord to a quality, well engineered cable, be it solid core, ribbon, whatever, different materials, and the difference will be very audible. 

@randym860 EVERYTHING has a sound signature. It's not alway the tone, or the frequency curve, it can be "precision", "depth", "width", "prat". Nothing is absolutely neutral and that includes cables. Some are closer to neutrality, for sure, but absolute neutrality doesn't exist.

@dentdog of course. That "expectation bias" explanation is utter BS. I have drawers full of audio cables, sometimes I swap them around, just for the sake of it, I already own them and have no "expectations" for "better" sound, but it sounds different every time. Same goes for power cord, I was rearranging my system lately and thought I would swap the various power cords around again and try them on different components but only ONE arrangement (this power cord on THAT device, and so on) gives me magic. The rest sounds vastly inferior. I already own the power cords, only the different requirements of the various electronics in my system decide which power cord goes where, not novelty or price or "pride of ownership". That argument is for deaf "audiophiles" with a lousy system.

@dadawada it's all about money, for you skeptics, right? All I read is "expensive cables", "it's your money", "a fool and his money", etc etc... looks like the wallet is as tight as the ears canals, for you folks. More seriously, had you ever made actual experiments, you would know that, for example, Belden 9497 cable sounds VERY different from similarly priced, entry level cable. There are people who actually PREFER the sound signature of the Belden cable, to the sound signature of cables costing much more. 

What's more, if confirmation bias is indeed a thing, because yes we are humans, it does go BOTH WAYS and you people are not immune to it, as @thyname pointed out. Weirdly, when someone states this (and there is no way around it: it IS a fact, IT DOES GO BOTH WAYS) there's never any answer from the skeptics. You guys usually choose to ignore the remark. 

I'll keep calling people "trolls" when they behave as such, and frankly, coming ON THE CABLE FORUM and basically calling us cable believers (and I wouldn't be surprised, in the grand scheme of things, if we are quite the majority) "delusional" or "fools" is nothing else than TROLLING. I've been trying all manners of cables, from the cheapest to the expensive, in the last 25 years and let me say this, if you can't hear the differences between two cables made of different geometry / materials, then how can you hear the difference between two DACs? Between two amplifiers? And HOW, good Lord, HOW DO YOU PICK YOUR ELECTRONICS and HOW DO YOU BUILD YOUR SYSTEMS? do you exclusively look at numbers? Ears are NOT TO BE TRUSTED!

...Trolls....

@thyname in all honestly for the life of me I cannot understand why this cable issue is still so controversial in 2023.

I use home brew horn speakers. They were not made by an engineer, don't use expensive drivers, and even tho they bring me a lot of pride and pleasure they are far from having the perfect flat curve or the perfect phase / impulse response. Worse, the room in which they are currently used is a nightmare which I'm slowly trying to deal with. Well, even with all those flaws, differences in cables are so obvious that some cables I have tried barely stayed a week in the system, others led me to re-think the positioning of the system, others highlighted faults in my electronics in a way that had me reconsider that side of things, and so on.

Cales I currently own (or have tried for an extended period of time) include:

- generic 12 gauge OFC multistrand (lack of definition, a bit mushy, exaggerated sibilance, veiled midrange)

-generic silver plated OFC multistrand, 12 gauge (very bright, highlights high mids / low treble in a very artificial way, no real definition or transparency)

-QED "Qudos" original (12ga oFC multistrand with Teflon insulation) much better than the two generic cables, but not neutral nor really transparent, a bit colored, would suit many low cost systems well by adding some "meat on the bones")

-Leedh cable from the 1990's (these came with a pair of Leedh Nazca speakers whose tweeters needed a fix, speakers belong to a friend of mine but have spent many months at my place due to my friend moving to a different place): solid core OFC wire, twisted: more precision, but very dry and unmusical when tried in my system

-Belden 9497: bought that one because it is supposed to do marvels with horns, nice at low levels with great insight into the recording, brings out details, but ragged and rough at high SPLs

-My current cables: fake Nordost Odin from China, individually teflon insulated silver plated OFC solid cores, spiral geometry (completely different from the genuine Nordost cable which is flat): smooth and open, subtle "luminosity" without harshness, wide imaging, took ages to burn in (that was EXTREME and I almost threw them away at some point but I'm glad I didn't)

all those cables sound VERY different. It's IMPOSSIBLE not to hear it. And none was really expensive. The fake Odin is definitely more expensive than Belden but still nowhere near as expensive as true high-end cables. Those are all cheap cables in the grand scheme of things.

I wonder if any of the non-believers ever tried, as an experiment, to wire their speakers with cable A on left channel and cable B on right channel. Choose two cables with different materials and construction, and then see if you can get a coherent, well centered stereo image. Good luck with that!