How much difference do you think cables makes in the audio quality of your system?

[jbk]

I agree with Wes, you have to be a believer.

I feel the same way with power cords. They've never seemed to make a difference on my equipment.

What the "Golden Eared" reviewers hear is beyond me.

It reminds me of the scene in Jurassic Park when Hammond and Ellie are discussing the flee circus.

Mommy, I can see the flees can you see the flees. Lots of snake oil and illusion.

And the sales men use psychological ploys when selling eg power of suggestion when demonstrating.

"Can you hear that?" "Isn't there more blackness? (in between the passages or lulls).

Cables are one of the highest margin products a store can sell.

JBK

[Loves2Watch]

It has been proven time and time again that cable "quality" makes absolutely no difference as long as the proper gauge for the length of run is used. Take this from a professional audio engineer with high dollar, esoteric equipment. It just doesn't matter no matter what the snake oil salesmen try to tell you.

[wes]

Yes the margins for electronics such as AV receivers, speakers and so on are usualy 40 to 50 points off the MRSP on the other hand for acbles the margins are 100 points or more so of course the dealers want you to buy their high end cables made of super pure coper and silver at 99.9999999999999999999999999999999999999 99999999999999999999% pure with copper molecule ligned together and super teflon cover against the evil eye

Long live ultra expensive cables once up-on a time I too was victim of these non ethical snake oil sellers until I made a comparison with bulk wire I bought at Home Depot !!!

Never again

[fgwaller]

Being the owner of some expensive cables and a bunch of cheap cables as well I have to say that even my not so audiophile friends could hear the difference between the cheap home depot cables and the double solid silver twisted Mamba wires, which for what ever reason seam to sound clearer in combination with my Martin Logan and Jaszen speakers, but just "different" when listened to with other speakers, with some speakers even a bit "weak" on the bass side compared to the (I think 8g or 10g) Home Depot cable.
I was lucky enough to get the Mamba cable at wholesale and would have never bought that cable at "regular" price however, margins were quite high at the time and most likely still are.
If you think any cable could make a difference for you get a reasonable thick braided copper wire and see if you can test the cables you would like to buy in comparison to it.. (you will need the help of a friend to do a blind test at least) If you can hear a difference and you like what you hear you maybe should take which ever cable sounds better for you, but likeliness is that for most situations you will not be able to tell them apart, at which point you can save some money...
And the cheaper cable does not necessarily sound worse (not talking about the lampwire type) provided it is a reasonable gauge copper wire.
I had used braided shield coax as speaker wire before as well (using the shields only), which outperformed many thin copper wires and at some point was cheaper then reasonable gauge copper, but today I think you can get the cheap thick copper cables at a reasonable price, which will perform about the same and look better for the same price. Plus it is hard to get coax cable with the right layout (enough gauge in shield, etc).
If you did not spend multiple thousands on speakers, amps, etc any expensive cable might be a waste of money, get a better amp or better speakers first. If you don't have electrostats as speakers, the speakers seem to produce 10 times more distortion, colorization, etc than any other component and again a "regular" good cable might be all you need.

[Loves2Watch]

Originally Posted by fgwaller

Being the owner of some expensive cables and a bunch of cheap cables as well I have to say that even my not so audiophile friends could hear the difference between the cheap home depot cables and the double solid silver twisted Mamba wires, which for what ever reason seam to sound clearer in combination with my Martin Logan and Jaszen speakers, but just "different" when listened to with other speakers, with some speakers even a bit "weak" on the bass side compared to the (I think 8g or 10g) Home Depot cable.
I was lucky enough to get the Mamba cable at wholesale and would have never bought that cable at "regular" price however, margins were quite high at the time and most likely still are.
If you think any cable could make a difference for you get a reasonable thick braided copper wire and see if you can test the cables you would like to buy in comparison to it.. (you will need the help of a friend to do a blind test at least) If you can hear a difference and you like what you hear you maybe should take which ever cable sounds better for you, but likeliness is that for most situations you will not be able to tell them apart, at which point you can save some money...
And the cheaper cable does not necessarily sound worse (not talking about the lampwire type) provided it is a reasonable gauge copper wire.
I had used braided shield coax as speaker wire before as well (using the shields only), which outperformed many thin copper wires and at some point was cheaper then reasonable gauge copper, but today I think you can get the cheap thick copper cables at a reasonable price, which will perform about the same and look better for the same price. Plus it is hard to get coax cable with the right layout (enough gauge in shield, etc).
If you did not spend multiple thousands on speakers, amps, etc any expensive cable might be a waste of money, get a better amp or better speakers first. If you don't have electrostats as speakers, the speakers seem to produce 10 times more distortion, colorization, etc than any other component and again a "regular" good cable might be all you need.

There is no difference, it is a fact...

[wes]

Originally Posted by Loves2Watch

It has been proven time and time again that cable "quality" makes absolutely no difference as long as the proper gauge for the length of run is used. Take this from a professional audio engineer with high dollar, esoteric equipment. It just doesn't matter no matter what the snake oil salesmen try to tell you.

I could not agree more, what do you think of Classé as a brand!