I have these Radio Shack Auvio wires in my system, cost $50 for 25 ft, and cut into 12 feet speaker cables. I believe they're 12 gauge conductors. I use Audioquest spade connectors with them on both ends. My system has a Benchmark DAC1 HDR, Audio Research VSi60 integrated tube amplifier, and Martin Logan Theos ES speakers. I did a back-to-back test with Audioquest's Rocket Series cables in the $900 range outfitted with banana connectors. I remember that they were 13 AWG size. What I found was that there was absolutely no difference I could discern. I spent the entire weekend listening off and on, probably a total of 10 hours of listening. I kept telling myself there had to be a difference. I must have changed out the cables about 10 or 20 times. As much as I wanted the Audioquests to sound better in one respect or another, I honestly could not tell them apart. A friend told me he compared a set of Audioquests (also in the $800 range) with Monster cables and he noticed a big difference. He even had some friends and neighbors come over to listen because he really didn't want to spend the money on the Audioquests. He was hoping it was all in his head, but everyone else thought the Audioquests sounded better and he ended up purchasing them. So, based on that, I was really expecting to hear a difference. I played classical, rock, Enya with bass heavy drums, and HD 96/24 music downloaded from HD Tracks online. This test didn't make me a firm disbeliever in high end cables one way or another. It could be that my system interacts particularly well with the Auvio brand, and there could be something out there that's much better. But, for now I'm pretty happy with the Auvio's.
