what do you know"

The points made on the aspects of wire here are valid, and I suspect it is just those aspects in conjunction with your equipment which dictate what speaker cables will do besst for you... eg., resisttance inductane, capacitance... etc.

My own exp with speaker cables thus far has only proven out cheap is OK, and more expensive is more OK. I doubt I'll ever be able to get way on up into higher priced speaker cables and will only if I redo my setup, shortening the length for those cables.

Sometimes it's as simple as finding the missing peg that fills out the mix of cables and components you have on hnad. Sounds like you did. Good for you. Mine were the SR Sig 10s. They were slightly more than a $100.

During these uh, 'blind' testgin sessions, were the cables all being kept hot? hot swapped in and out too?

I'd not allow wires to be popped on or off my gear while it was energized... or anyone else’s. Then there's the warming up part. I'm doubtful a good A/B situation exists unless one uses likewise gear/sources, or those with multiple inputs or outputs so differing cables can be alternatively chosen at one’s discretion. For instance, with a preamp connected to all the same CDPs, but with different ICs on each CDP. Even then there’s the warming up period to do all over again… albeit somewhat a more abbreviated period if done in that fashion.

main IC comparisons would be tougher, given the above constraints... speaker wires too would be problematic to A/B properly.

My DAC has twin outputs, yet even there, XLR>RCA adapters need to be used on one set. It's easy to discern the diffs between cables using it as a source however in spite of that one addition.

Don't make memory an aspect of the session. Such tests are going to be problematical indeed, yet I'd bet a good deal merely selecting from one pair to another will surely reveal if there are any sonic diffs from pair to pair.

I mean as long as one is going to do an A/B of cables... make the affair such that ONLY the cables are indeed the items being subjected to the test. NOT the ICs and your memory, right?

That is of course, IF you’re looking to prove something about cables and NOT about aural memory.

Naturally, it stands to reason always, if you don’t hear a diff, and you’ve done an exact comparative session without reliance upon memory, then certainly one should not pay the difference… regardless the amount of $$$ you have in your gear.

...and apparently some ham too.