could somebody help me out on the benefits of expensive phono and speaker cables?

10% is not reasonable. I’m my system, that gives me 17k to play with. Not happening. 18-20% was my sweet spot.

^^^^ This is why it’s good to bring some alternative viewpoints for balance, when newbies come to an audiophile forum to ask about cables. Lest they simply accept that they have to spend a lot of money on cables to get good sound.

My speaker cables cost about $70 for the pair, and only that much because I had a long run to buy. That’s something like .8 percent only of what my previous speakers cost me, let alone my whole system!
I get great sound. I like it better than the sound my pal gets with many thousands of dollars worth of boutique cables.

So, another viewpoint to consider for the OP.


*bro fist to stevecham*


(I use Belden. If it’s good enough for pros to use in creating many excellent recordings, it’s good enough to pass those signals to my speakers).

Room acoustics matter a whole lot more. 

So you can call me a newbie, I joined to buy a McIntosh Power amp. Didn't really know this was a forum too. Already on Audiokarma. What do you need for speaker cables anyway? 10 gauge 105 strand tinned copper in a shielded 2 pair jacket? Agree with prof here, belden cables are just fine, but I make my own cables using only belden. I refuse to pay for a fancy jacket with somebody's name on it, besides I love the way everything sounds & that's all that matters.

Do not waste your money on expensive cables. Me and my friends have spend thousands on expensive cables to our speakers, and there is this gentleman ‘b4icu’ from previous forum calculated the correct cable gauges for the amplifier we used. We bought 4 AWG copper wires from Amazon as recommended by him with spade and banana connectors and DIY the cables. For $200 between the 3 of us, we have 3 set of speakers cables. We are very happy with the DIY cables to our speakers. 

It's all just wire. Get copper. Get a low gauge number (thick) connect it. All it has to do is get the electrical mojo to the drivers. It might be nice to tell you friends you have 25k in meteorite sourced. 99999999999 Homium nitrided virgin Ecuadorian copper fully framulated and encased in the foreskins of penguins,  but it's still just...wire.