A true believer

Agaffer,
I saw your point in the OP, but now I think you are swinging too far in the other direction. For the average person with limited funds and other things in life to think about, choosing sanely priced cables that work well with your system is more serendipity than science, but if you are lucky enough to stumble on the right combo, there is certainly more than a minimal difference.

p.t. Barnum nailed it!!!!!

Roxy, I do think you can improve a system, somewhat, with wire. Oddly enough, it is one of the few things in audio where some of the less expensive ones make a bigger difference than the more expensive ones.

Most products in our hobby increase in performance with price. Not always but, most. Speakers grouped in the $2000 level don't out perform the ones grouped in the $12000 level for instance. One thing I know with all certainty is that nobody can take speakers in the $2000 level add $10000 of speaker cable and have the sound of a $12000 speaker. But you can turn a $2000 level speaker into a $12000 speaker by selling them and spend the money on speakers in the $12000 range.

I just have to weigh in here. A few months back, there was a raging controversy on the Hilberink Tannoy site, so much so, in fact, the subject was banned from all further discussion. The object of all this heated debate was some Russian speaker cables that were reputed to sound as good, or better, than even the most expensive cables out there.

Many, or most it seems, of the members of that site are electrical engineers. So, there are many adherents to the philosophy that cables don't make any difference, as long as the basic requirements for adequate transmission of the signal is met.

So, naturally, I purchased a set. From Lithuania, they cost me $57 including shipping. Since this was on the cheap, I bought plain copper spade lugs from my local Ace hardware, and soldered them on. I think my Cardas solder cost more than the cables.

Anyway, I have used them to drive my custom Tannoy HPD 315's, with a VAC PA 35.35, and my Sophia Baby amp. My determination is they sound every bit as good as my $1400 Synergistic Research Resolution Reference FX speaker cables. Maybe the naysayers are right.

I'm not looking to ignite a conflagration here, as it would be rather pointless.

Different strokes.

Dan

Rok2id, My sentiments exactly.