Do speaker cables really make a difference ?

The big problem with all these claims is that few people do proper double blind tests with correct signal levels. This makes almost all tests flawed, and the information that is taken out of these tests meaningless. Nevertheless, the "information" taken out of such tests gets spread.

I have been a professional sound engineer for several decades in one of the biggest recording studios in Switzerland. I've spent a lot of time comparing things (and yes, very expensive things, too). It's very surprising what can be the results of tests. A lot of the time, the results have nothing to do with the gear.

For example, if a signal is slightly louder, you won't perceive that it is louder, but you will likely like it better. And the hearing memory is very short. Our hearing also changes over time. If you have to get up and plug cables etc., you won't be able to tell if the cable sounds different.

A very respected loudspeaker developer told me that they had put needles into a potato and used that as a loudspeaker cable. They couldn't distinguish the sound of the potato from that of the very respected high priced cables.

But if you're happier with a more expensive cable, enjoy it! Your plus of joy is real and will likely have a real effect. And I don't consider it relevant that your referencing the joy to the quality and price of your cable has no base in reality. The joy is real, and that's what matters.

A very respected loudspeaker developer told me that they had put needles into a potato and used that as a loudspeaker cable. They couldn't distinguish the sound of the potato from that of the very respected high priced cables.

Yes, but you neglected to mention that the potato cables used in that comparison are well known to a certain subset of audiophiles as Kartoffel Klassiks, and they perform particulate well with sour cream and chives. 😀

Brilliant Whipsaw lol

Yes jump on them ASAP!!

After getting my Pioneer SX-1280 back from a full recap, I wanted to upgrade the old "by the roll" 16 gauge wire with 12 gauge.  I had already upgraded the crossovers on my HPM-100 200w version speakers which included banana plug posts.  So with the addition of 12 gauge push terminal to banana plug adapters on the SX-1280, I purchased Mediabridge 12AWG Ultra Series 12 FT cables.  For what I need It is solid.  (And the cables are reasonably priced). 
 

Bottomline, make sure what you have is solid as It relates to gauge, material, connectors and you will be fine. 

 . 

They most certainly do make a difference. I recently moved things around and had to sell my Morrow Audio SP-6'S because they weren't long enough for my current configuration and replaced them with a pair of second hand Canare 4S11 cables and hooked them up bare wire and let me tell you that everything collapsed and sounds thin as all hell with no details! I'm glad that I only paid $40 for the Canare cables. What a disappointment! If anyone has used the Morrows close to the SP-6'S and knows of something close to that sound quality please let me know. I'm disabled now and can no longer afford to buy the Morrows brand new. Any help is appreciated.

Yes - 100% the do make a difference but they are system dependent as well as dependent on how you hear and perceive things. What works for me in my system may not be the best for you. 

If just trying things out for the first time, try out a few different brands that fir your budget. Ideally, listen in your system and then buy the one you like best. 

The better your equipment, the more difference they make.

I can hear a difference between some QED silver cable from 20years ago and Wireworld eclipse 6s that I have much more detail in the wireworld 

YES

If you cannot heat any difference in your speaker cables, any of them, your speakers suck. As well as your gear. I don’t really know how to put this mildly 

@thyname, +1.

@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!

Your opinion is the only one that matters. For me and my system- it did make a significant difference. 

In the last couple of weeks I tried set of Micca 14 cables after reading great reviews of them with some comparing them to $1,000 cables in their systems.  I spent about $60 on two 6’ sets because I have a switch in my cables to support my home theater setup.

I enjoyed the sound of the Micca 14 cables as they had essentially no glare/harshness and were truly easy to listen to  The trade off was in the clarity and detail and the deep bass lost its definition  Sometimes when doing comparisons I don’t have the expected response when I swap back to the baseline. In this case, it was music to my ears.  I strongly prefer my Blue Jeans Cable 10AWG speaker cables in my system.  I lean towards clarity over warmth, but did appreciate the total lack of edginess with the Micca14 cables  

I learned early in life that cables do matter. An elementary school friend of mine and I used to make backyard walkie-talkies with two tin cans and some kite string. I found that more expensive kite string sounded better than regular kite string. I never tested to see whether or not the name brand vegetable cans sounded better than the off brand cans. As an adult, I connect my Personas with 12 gauge oxygen free copper wire. That sounds as good as any other wire I’ve tried.

Just purchased a pair of Nordost Frey 2’s which replaced, still have, WyWires Silver Series. First the WyWires are wonderful cables that throw a huge stage and the first speaker cables I’ve owned that made my speakers disappear.  
 

Well, as good as the WyWires are, which mine are three series down from Alex’s best are nowhere close to the Frey 2. More everything, hearing micro details in recordings I have known for years and great recordings sound like the performers are in my room, average and some not so great recordings sound better. The upgrade was like getting a speaker upgrade, not subtle.

Yes, speaker cables make a difference, and I’ll stick to my earlier comment that speaker cables in my opinion can make the biggest or most noticeable difference between cables. Yes, there is a significant cost difference between these speaker cables, and the difference is there.