what do you know"

Al,

There is another way to look at it.

Since technically speaking there is no reason to assume one cable should be any better than another (given your caveats on gauge, properties etc.) then one can conclude that differences are most likely due to the way the equipment behaves. A reasonable engineering "philosophy" is that well designed equipment which is well matched together should be capable of performing perfectly well with any number of acceptable cables. Therefore, if some equipment turns out to be highly dependent or sensitive to a piece of wire than it really might be worth considering to avoid said equipment or its combination in a manner that causes such unreliable performance. (I exclude cables that are designed to be filters or act like an equalizer from these comments - stuff that is deliberately designed to change the sound)

Baroque_Lover,

I wonder if anyone will take you up on your offer to make a test with a friend?

I recall that Mike Lavigne did this exact type test about a year ago and was
unable to pick one good cable over another good cable using his own system
when blind ( but heard a difference when sighted )The test at least showed
that differences between cables are vanishingly small on one of the most
resolving systems on A'gon. I don't recall the details - so excuse me if I didn't
get all the facts straight - but I know that it was a "revelation" that
only someone as decent and generous as Mike Lavigne would admit to. Of
course, I regularly admit to being tin eared so nobody would be surprised if I
could not hear a difference and with my modest system it would prove
nothing, as doubters would just point to my crap system.

Alan uses 79 Strand copper

I recommend that too. Great speaker wire - you get nice contact at the binding posts and very flexible - no stress on connectors.

Just wanted to say Happy Holidays , hope you get over
yourself so that you will hear the music too!!

And you guys too - those on both sides of the fence - those with ordinary
cables and those with expensive ones - I believe Baroque has installed Harbeth
Compact 7's recently - I am sure he enjoys the music in spite of the cable/wires
issues and problems he faces - we all face. I bet we all do enjoy the music!
Happy Holidays

Baroque_Lover,

A suggestion: make sure to mention that you are "tin eared" on any thread that goes in this direction. If you admit to being inferior or just plain average when making these kind of observations then those who are certain of their superiority (can hear big differences and don't need to do blind tests to confirm what they hear) will not be offended.

Cables like capacitors do make a difference....case closed

Capacitors indeed make a difference. Especialy when used in passive crossovers or coupling capacitors.

There is no doubt that the MIT cable improved the sound

MIT cables appear to use many active elements. This is akin to a custom filter. The active components will work in concert with the voice coil and passive crossover in the speaker resulting in a different sound from ordinary wire. There is no doubt that the MIT cable will change the sound - depending on the speakers and your tastes it could be an improvement or not. Of course, MIT claim that the adjustment must necessarily be an improvement and back it up with basic power engineering. Although speakers are mostly designed to be controlled by a voltage source accurately amplifying a source signal.

The MA Oracle even has an adjustment control.

One must be careful not to get into a heated argument with these type cables versus ordinary cables (wires) as MIT are indeed substantially different and may sound better (depending on your tastes and existing system synergy).

David Salz is basically recommending low series resistance and low inductance in speaker cables. This is good advice.
In interconnects you would want low parallel capcitance.

The pitfall with seeking costly incremental percentage improvements in cable properties (for example copper to oxygen free or to silver wire or to special wire geometries) is that one may believe that the percentage improvement will actually translate directly into proportionally large percentage audible improvements. No so. In most cases, wires have such a small effect on the signal that with well designed and matched equipment the differences between one ordinary wire and another will be minute. For sure everything with a different equivalent R, L, and C has got to sound slightly different but the differences are so small as to be what a tin eared person would regard as negligible (no more than mere tenths of a decibel and often much less - unless you get into really strange designs that push the envelope in inductance or capcitance and resulting large phase shifts and attenuation).

Depending on which side of the fence you are on, a possible conclusion is that one might be better served by handing over more money for a better amplifier or a much better speaker (one with a bit more money in driver quality) or room acuostics than investing in incremental improvements in speaker wire.

All this talk of sloppy leftovers makes me hungry.