Do speaker cables really make a difference ?

I purchased a used set of fake audioQuest Well speaker cable. It has 8 conductors per leg, two silver plated coppers in the pos and four silver plated in the neg and the bat packs. It replaced Kimber 12 tc two full range cables per speaker, I was blown away by the difference in sq.

 The Chinese  fellow who made these needs to make his own design and market them. They were less than half the price of the Kimbers and twice bested them. My Audio buddy still uses lamp cord and refuses to try them.  I've replaced them now with Furutech. 

Back in the days of yore everybody used lamp cord - and nobody complained!

Things were better back when we were more ignorant.

Yup.

I will say yes speaker cables matter but, on my system at least, they mattered the least of all my cables.

Back in the days of yore everybody used lamp cord - and nobody complained! Nowadays clever marketing and expectation bias (if it costs more it must be better) compels the gullible and unwary to spend serious shekels on wire in search of that last nth degree of sonic realism!

AUDIO: SPEAKER CABLES - From Alan Shaw (owner and designer of HARBETH)

” … So, the moral of the story is this: the most important factor of the loudspeaker cable that you should select is the amount of metal in the cable core. More metal means lower resistance.

If the core is round (as most are) then the correlation is simple: the fatter the diameter of the metal core the better because the electrical resistance between amp and speaker will be lower.

Thin and really thin cores should be avoided regardless of how exotic the metal material is claimed as the lack of metal in the core conductor will increase resistance. That will reduce amplifier damping, effect the frequency response of the speaker and give unpredictable results that will vary from amp/speaker combination.

Do not be fooled by the diameter of the external plastic sheath: what matters is the metal content of the core. The more the better, without exception….”

Full disclosure: I have owned three pairs of Harbeth speakers, and was, for a while, active on the Harbeth forum. I ultimately had a few run-ins with Alan Shaw, and was banned from the forum, as he wasn’t happy with my persistent challenges.

I mention this because my response to the above quote has nothing to do with my personal feelings about Shaw, and I hold his speakers in high regard.

I would argue that the designers and owners of, among others, Audience cables, would take issue with Shaw’s assertions. I have owned several pair of Audience speaker cables over the past ~20 years, and currently use their AU-24SX. For those unfamiliar with Audience cables, they are extremely thin, and very flexible.

I have also owned high-quality, thick cables, such as Virtual Dynamics, and Purist Audio Design, and have always returned to Audience.

Would I prefer a thick cable of similar quality if I were to A/B test them? I don’t know. But what I do know is that the Audience sound very, very good, and it is difficult for me to imagine that the sound quality is meaningfully impaired by issues relating to high(er) resistance. I have also used them with quite a few different components, including speakers.

As a final note, I am not arguing with the science behind Shaw’s claim, but rather with his simplistic conclusion, which is, in my experience, somewhat typically arrogant.

+1, @audphile1 

I would look at manufacturers that are using PC-OCC copper in their speaker cables. Have fun! 

Everything makes a difference +1

If though priority list was in order then interconnects and power cables have more influence than speaker cables.

YES!!

They have for me, and it’s audible.

The technical details about copper and construction, etc. are interesting and relevant -- possibly.

Why possibly? Because all these discussions about construction typically don't mention the more significant factors regarding when a technicality about cable construction becomes audible. In other words, what makes a cable design audible depends upon the acoustics and sensitivity of a particular (a) system, (b) room, (c) source, and (d) listener. Those factors are key variables causing some people to claim that cables are BS or that cables definitely make an audible difference.

For this reason, the deceptively simple advice to "try and see" is even wiser than it looks.

Everything makes a difference.

Speaker cables have made a difference on every system I've owned so far.

Repost

AUDIO: SPEAKER CABLES - From Alan Shaw (owner and designer of HARBETH)

” … So, the moral of the story is this: the most important factor of the loudspeaker cable that you should select is the amount of metal in the cable core. More metal means lower resistance.

If the core is round (as most are) then the correlation is simple: the fatter the diameter of the metal core the better because the electrical resistance between amp and speaker will be lower.

Thin and really thin cores should be avoided regardless of how exotic the metal material is claimed as the lack of metal in the core conductor will increase resistance. That will reduce amplifier damping, effect the frequency response of the speaker and give unpredictable results that will vary from amp/speaker combination.

Do not be fooled by the diameter of the external plastic sheath: what matters is the metal content of the core. The more the better, without exception….”

Yep ….

Need proof? The next time you attend a hifi show, take a moment to look behind the systems in your favorite manufacturers’ rooms. You’ll notice that the cables they choose to use when they’re trying to make a good impression are not the standard cheap or middlin’ cables. They only use very top end premium OEM brands - and only the very top OEM brand models - to showcase their components in the best light possible.

Positively YES! Just let your ears be the judge.

They certainly can do so.  I recently replaced long runs (6m) of thick (6sqmm) van Damme cables with Neotech NES 3002 cables  Big price difference.  The Neotech are made of OCC copper and have multiple thin cables in much better insulation.  The result was that good recordings sound much better: more detail and better sound stage.  Bright recordings now sound a bit too bright but can be tamed inexpensively with a Schiit Loki.

Here's a link: https://wp.neotechcable.com/up-occ-copper-cable/

As far as I understand (not very far really) one factor explaining the difference is the  difference in skin effect between one thick cable and lots of little ones which together have the same volume as the thick one.

They definitely do and probably more than any other cable, then power cables, interconnects and digital cables the least. At least that’s my opinion. If you can’t hear the difference in your system then you should probably start with upgrading your speakers first.

Yes. And so do power cords, interconnects, digital cables, ethernet cables and even outlets.