Speaker Cables? why all the hype for expensive speaker wire?

daleberlin

“Yes cables can sound incredibly different.” Prove it.

No one here owes you any proof. The documentation you seek is actually abundant, but you’ll have to work to find and digest it.

Here’s one especially thorough study. Very detailed. All variables controlled.

"This work shows that two system configurations differing only by the interconnect pathway are audibly discernable, even by average listeners with no special experience in music or audio ... electrical measurements conducted here indicate that noise levels may be one determining factor of sonic performance. The measurements also show that characteristics such as resistance and frequency response, that naïve consumers may focus on, are irrelevant for distinguishing HEA interconnect cables. "

Still, I think the best thing to do is listen and decide for yourself.

@cleeds Thanks for posting that paper!

I myself have heard differences. But for those who tell me it’s snake oil, I had a thought. If I believe them and listen again and then -- voila! -- hear no differences, isn’t it in my self-interest to cut my losses and sell my cables? That seems like the most rational thing to do. So, when I listen again and hear differences, it must be that I’m hearing the differences *despite* my self-interest. That is, it’s objectively there.

Oh, and here’s one more argument from self-interest: if I prefer to think they make a difference, how irrational is this compared to literally any other purchase that gives me pleasure? Anyone who has paid a 3000% markup on a soda at a fast food place has used exactly this reasoning. It’s not irrational. It’s preference-satisfaction.

Ferrari’s….why are the hype over expensive cars. I’ve driven all kinds of cars and I’m sitting here in my Fiat going “this thing drives just fine…”

i agree w miller on this

when folks say ’prove it’ to something they don’t accept, it is naive and self centered and utlimately unproductive

folks who believe something believe it, they have come to accept that notion in their minds, in their own way

whether it is actually true or not, it is not their burden to prove it to someone else, although they may choose to share their rationale ... if any of us really want to know, we should learn, experiment, run honest comparisons to convince ourselves... and if that is too hard, well too bad -- still, no one is obligated to prove anything to you...

the spirit of this board is to share ideas, beliefs, discuss, debate -- we all take it as input, and then use our intellect, training, resources and wits to discern what we believe to be true -- and if something is important enough, we can choose to make an effort to find out and convince ourselves

too many people are too self centered, too entitled, too spoiled... you type a few words on this board about something, read something you don’t agree with...  no one owes you anything here, much less 'proof' ...

Better quality cable will usually sound better than the cheap stuff-- BUT-- the claims made by many of the companies that sell the inexplicably expensive stuff are, IMO, after years and years of listening to different kinds of quality speaker cable, without any merit. 

Here's what's true; at a certain level of materials and build quality spending more money for any cable is not going to guarantee that you get any better sound out of your system. What you will get are different flavor notes-- like from one Zinfandel wine to the next-- usually small but sometimes very important differences. You have to live with any new or different cables for a while to really get a true (as opposed to a placebo) sense of the changes those cables have made to your system.

Not to sound to MillerCarbony-- but companies that charge stupid money for their cables are not really selling cables at all.