I was always wondering if PVC is not a really bad insulator for signal wires: the very large chlorine atoms with three pairs of unpaired electrons in their outer shell are bound to interact with the electro-magnetic field around a wire. But I did not act on my suspicion until I found XLR ICs with silver wire running in a PTFE tube and a shielding mesh of silver-plated copper. They are made in HK and the price was right and thus I bought two pairs from my DAC to my preamp and from my preamp to my power amps, replacing the Mogamis I had for years. I can only say that they did indeed make a significant difference, not ground-shaking but clearly audible and in a very pleasant way: more clarity and headroom, especially with solo voice (Shirley Bessey with "Big Spender", for example, where I can now understand each single word), but also deeper sound stage and dry and punchy bass. Overall money really well spent. Since then I began making my own speaker cables, by running a single 5N silver wire in a PTFE tube filled with Argon gas. The latter has a dielectric constant similar to air, meaning almost unimpeded signal transmission, but has no corrosive effects on the silver conductor. A small tank of Argon can be rented in any hobby brewery-supply shop, and after filling the cable I seal both ends with sticky heat shrink. These speaker wires work very well and are not at all overly bright, as many audiophiles claim it to be a silver drawback: great headroom and extension, clear voicing and again taught and yet powerful bass. So, form my own experimental experience I can attest that wires can indeed make a significant difference in the overall musical experience, but I would never spend more than a couple of $100 on them.
Why Do Cables Matter?
To me, all you need is low L, C, and R. I run Mogami W3104 bi-wire from my McIntosh MAC7200 to my Martin Logan Theos. We all know that a chain is only as strong as its' weakest link - so I am honestly confused by all this cable discussion.
What kind of wiring goes from the transistor or tube to the amplifier speaker binding post inside the amplifier? It is usually plain old 16 ga or 14 ga copper. Then we are supposed to install 5 - 10' or so of wallet-emptying, pipe-sized pure CU or AG with "special configurations" to the speaker terminals?
What kind of wiring is inside the speaker from the terminals to the crossover, and from the crossover to the drivers? Usually plain old 16 ga or 14 ga copper.
So you have "weak links" inside the amplifier, and inside the speaker, so why bother with mega expensive cabling between the two? It doesn't make logical sense to me. It makes more sense to match the quality of your speaker wires with the existing wires in the signal path [inside the amplifier and inside the speaker].