Will increasing speaker cable AWG make a difference in sound quality?

Maybe the only way to know is try it.

Snake oil at its best!!!!

I learned something about cable here, always been wondering why cables sound different from each other when they should not have, especially for the better-constructed ones.  

When you go up the AQ (and some other manufacturers) cable line you don’t only get bigger gauge wire. You get better quality materials and better connectors. You have to figure all this into equation. And connectors do make a difference.
All being equal, will you hear the difference between the same quality cable of 12 and 10 awg terminated with the same connectors? I guess it’s possible but depends on a lot of other factors.

As a long time user of (small gauge) Audience speaker cables, I am skeptical. I have tried highly regarded, larger gauge cables (e.g. PAD, Inakustik, etc.), and have always returned to Audience.

I am not arguing that thinner gauge is better, but doubt that there would be any meaningful differences.

I have found that even 10 down to 8 will make a difference in my atc 19 standmounts.More in bass transients though.

Had Hollowgram II - 8awg.Which at times offered so much bass that it made my stand mounts sound like small floorstanders/felt like too much at times.After having these in my system for well over 15+ years...I wanted to compare some other like awg wires after reading diy projects reviewed.

Started DIY project with the usual wires.

Mogami 3104...8.5 awg.Great wire and on par with hollow grams with dynamics.I had to run these in hard to clean out some usual bloat and open high's and was rewarded nicely.Honest timber and Could live with them if really.

canare 4s11...11 awg.Felt like system needed more...good sounding though.Open and nice verve to it

Canare 4s12...10 awg.Felt very close to 4s11.Was bought by ghent cables redone.Could have used more hours.After 400-500hrs I felt i knew enough were they stood.

Furez 4/12...8.5 awg.Nice open sound to this wire/fep insulation?...glad i could get it when i did.These are up there with mogami 3104 in dynamics but touch more open.

My current wire is Zavfinos prema mrkII...9 awg.These are occ as well as hollow gram with center silver coated wire.These are the balance i believe my system needed.

I will add that i had a pair of Audio envy 9’s that were a great sounding wire.This cable bucked the awg theory that a bigger wire is more "effective in Quality"...so trying is the only way to know about the "sound quality" imho.In the end thought that is was the lowend that was the biggest trade off.

Good question.  Good responses.

If it's possible to get you hands on the cable of interest, give it a listen in your system.

Referring to your speciflc reference to AQ: As the AWG increases, there are other changes in material quality, geometry, dialetric, shielding, etc. The differences will be taking in more factors than AWG alone, so it won't be a linear 15AWG vs 10AWG comparison.  Also helps explain the price jump.

Whilst increasing the gauge of the wire invariably changes the sound in some way the original post talks about Improving Sound Quality...

Increasing speaker cable size (for example w/AQ the cable sizes move up in size from 15AWG to 10AWG) improve sound quality?

For me - improving sound quality encompases

1. eliminating tonal colourations - i.e getting to a natural sound
   • increasing the gauge will CHANGE the colouration, but will not reduce them
   • this is because the surface area of the insulation that comes into contact with the metal of the wire increases.
   • The Dielectric Constant of the insulation needs to be as low as possible in order to reduce coloration
2. faster dynamics - i.e. crisper percussion instruments
   • this can be achieve by improving the metal of the wire
     • e.g. OCC copper instead of OFC wire
   • OCC solid silver wire provides the fastest dynamics at present
3. improving clarity and details - and as a result, improving image
   • this can be achieved by using a better cable geometry, which reduces the noise actually generated within the cable between conductors
4. using solid wire as opposed to stranded wire - improves clarity and dynamics

NOTE: changing one of the above will improve sound quality a little, but the more things you change the better the sound quality

If you want to read more on this topic take a look at this thread

What I have found makes a good cable

And if you really want to get into the nitty gritty of DIY cables take a look at

Duelund conversion to diy helix geometry cabling

Regards - Steve

Changing the gauge, will change the tonal response, larger diameter will shift the tonal response towards the low end and vice-versa.

generally yes. Large wire size is required for the high current that flows for small fractions of a second during dynamic changes or big bass notes. a mellow song will sound the same with both but, just like in power cables, there are dynamic times when higher current flows, even if just for a picosecond.  The simplistic calculations like others are doing in this thread are wrong.  It is the google level of understanding physics.  I have a physics degree from UofC.

With respect to 'not much amps flowing'. If your woofer eats a 200W impuls at 4 Ohm that (read up on Ohm's law) makes it 7 amps. Some speakers dip well below 4 ohm, and some peak power burst can be higher than 200 W. That is the reason why sometimes amps are needed that can deliver lots of amps (pun intended). Not sure how big the differences are in the esotheric heights of $10+/ft price levels, but back when, even the least skilled listener could accurately blind test the 'lamp cord' vs a 4mm2 multistrand even on our  "LoFi" (Audiogon scale) systems. Interestingly, the by far best speaker cable we ever heard back then (and includes cables we would never spend our hard earned money on, but did A/B comparisons in listening rooms) was a coax cable used for cable TV distribution in large complexes (at 50 cents a foot from our wholesaler). Still have a section (40 years old) and eager to dig it out and power my Nautilus 804 with it, see what it does. 

Distilled answer:

Maybe.  Maybe you can hear a difference, maybe not.

Good question. Good answers. Long story short, decreasing resistance in speaker cable with fatter wire can improve speaker performance… how much it might help is a nuanced consideration that depends on how much current reaches your speakers now and how much capacitance and induction your current cables hold. A couple previous answers work well to bring peace of mind . Well reviewed studio quality cable brands like Canare and Mogami are safe cost-effective universal solutions. My Wharfedale Heritage Lintons love Mogami 3103, a quad arranged cable with two 12 AWG OFC wires and two inert strands to keep the spacing even in the cable.

If the cable is Duelund, then the quality remains the same, but the sound signature changes.

https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/duelund-speaker-cable

Duelund compared

I prefer the 16 over the 12.  Others don't.

I do wonder, however, whether some cable manufacturers deliberately (and unnecessarily) make their cables super thick to nudge the user's perception of them to one of power and muscularity in the sound.  

Regardless of the quality of the copper, its treatments and the insulation used, and without considering capacitance and inductance, which is the speaker cable on the market with a larger copper section, therefore with less resistance for the same length?
(the final separation and possible reduction of a few cm to be able to enter the forks or bananas does not count)

As indicated by the Alan Shaw quote, the main factor affecting the performance of a speaker cable is the aggregate area of the conductors…to a point - as discussed by @raysmtb1.  IOW, if you have enough, then more will probably not change anything.   How big you need is affected by the current you are driving, based on the efficiency of your speakers and the output of your amplifiers.

However, the other cable materials and construction factors can also make a sonic difference.  As an example, my go-to choices here are both bi-wired cables, a stranded copper cable with two runs of 7awg to each speaker and the other being two 9 awg runs of a multi-strand, individually insulated, solid core copper cable.  I can tell the difference between them but I like them both and probably 4 times out of 5, I prefer the smaller, multi-strand, solid core cable.

if you are pushing a lot of watts, 15awg could be small’ish.  However, as others pointed out, you can go larger without breaking the bank.

In general you’d expect moving up within a company’s product line should yield improvements, especially if in addition to gauge you get other improvements in things like quality of the conductors, geometry, connectors, dielectric, etc.  So there are several variables at play here in addition to the gauge of the cable. 

@ghdprentice kinda said it all IMO without much further need….. ( quality build matters , not just bulk. Think important contributing and bespoke factors such as dialectic, Litz design, et al)

The only thing I can offer for you ponder as you navelgaze the lint in your navel , is a published opinion post on why “beefier” build speaker cables can indeed matter.

I wouldn’t bow to it as irrevocable gospel for all systems, simply because there are good reasons why exhibitors choose the “flat and thin” NORDOST VALHALLA / ODIN cables as one of the two major leader cable choices at the audio expos,.along with the “beefier” CARDAS CLEAR / CLEAR BEYOND models.( Note: you will never see cheap budget cables there for intuitive reasons …’nuff said)

I upgraded from NORDOST FREY to CARDAS CLEAR with improvements that were not subtle in MY system…( emphasis added );…surely others may have differing outcomes.

MT TAKE: it only reveals itself by hands on experimentation. From personal,experience, simply upgrading to a thicker gauge in like budget build / budget performance cables likely won’t get you much.

SPEAKER CABLES - From Alan Shaw (owner and designer of HARBETH)

” … So, the moral of the story is this: the most important factor of the loudspeaker cable that you should select is the amount of metal in the cable core. More metal means lower resistance.

If the core is round (as most are) then the correlation is simple: the fatter the diameter of the metal core the better because the electrical resistance between amp and speakerwill be lower.

Thin and really thin cores should be avoided regardless of how exotic the metal material is claimed as the lack of metal in the core conductor will increase resistance. That will reduce amplifier damping, effect the frequency response of the speaker and give unpredictable results that will vary from amp/speaker combination.

Do not be fooled by the diameter of the external plastic sheath: what matters is the metal content of the core. The more the better, without exception….”

If you’re running the recommended size and go to a much larger size, I would say no. If you’re running some thing that’s way too small and then you go to what’s recommend it then you might.

+1 @ozzy

Given the same material, yes, most likely. I did some comparisons long ago using power cords cut to be speaker cables.

Are you going to hear it? It depends, how resolving is your system? How experienced are you in listening?

Now if you are comparing different audiophile speaker cables, then it competely depends on overall construction… dielectrics used, geometry… stranded vs solid… etc.

Why? There are many threads on the subject. 

My general feeling is that speakers and amps are a little more susceptible to LCR effects than we give them credit for. 

Meaning, cables matter, BUT... it's really small changes. So, possibly, but I wouldn't pay a lot for it. :)

My favorite all around cable is Mogami which is pretty affordable and comes in a couple of different gauges, including a quad you can put together as ~ 10 gauge.

Why?  The current involved is miniscule.  It would decrease resistance but increase capacitance. 

Generally, yes.

ozzy