Lot's of good inexpensive speaker cables out there. That said, I definitely heard improvements when I recently moved from my Acoustic Zen Satori to my current cable, a Nordost Tyre 2. IMHO need a pretty high resolution system and a good room to parse these kinds of things out. Most of the differences I experienced with this last change were somewhat subtle. Nothing night and day but I haven't tried lamp cord or 14 guage romex or anything like that so I can't compare my current set up to something quite that bare bones. Another issue here is with the listener and how trained their ear is. I have been playing music for 50 years and have classical training. It really does help me unravel the music and I believe makes me more sensitive to nuance. In the end, whatever makes you happy. If you hear a difference no one can argue with you, if you don't hear a difference, no one can argue with you. No one can make you hear what they hear and the fact that you don't have the same experience doesn't invalidate their experience.
Speaker Cables? why all the hype for expensive speaker wire?
After listening to many speaker cables, I am listening to basic 14 Gauge, high purity copper speaker wire and find myself shaking my head. Does this basic speaker wire sound better than cables many times the price? I am really starting to ponder that question. I think I am hearing things on my records I never heard before and better balance of sound. What are your thoughts?