So, say you have it all. A reference amplifier, fantastic studio grade speakers, the best DAC outthere. You really broke the bank. Now it´s time to wire it all together and without you knowing, you enter the mysterious world of speaker cables.
All of a sudden everything gets fuzzy. Claims are made about copper purities, cable inductivity, inductance, capacitance and some go as far as placing their cables on little bridges so they don´t communicate with any rebar in the floor.
So what´s up with cables? Well first of, let´s acknowledge one thing: There is nothing more soothing for our audiophile souls than going the extra mile of doing something truly remarkable for ourselves. The mere idea of having achieved perfection is rewarding and since I suppose we all work hard, we get to play hard too. But what´s the underlying science. Do expensive cables really make a difference? How good is good enough and what´s over the top?
Since we are considering the possibility of entering the world of Snake-Oil, let´s do what the medical world does to test if a potion has a desired effect and look at double blind testing. If neither the tester, nor the subject know whether cable A is connected to the system or cable B, can they reliably figure out the difference just by listening. The fact is that many such studies have been performed in the past, and it is rare that a listenner can reliably pick up the difference in the sound provided from signals coming from cables of similar gauge. Physics backs us up here. Unless you have an unusually powerful system or a great distance between the amps and the speakers, normal lamp cord will actually do quite nicely. Neither a reduction in electrical resistance, impedance, or capacitance will lead to an audible improvement. I am sure this will bother some readers, as obsession over cables have become an integral part of the audiophile relentless pursuit of the better fighting the good. This is just our experience and opinion and we could be wrong. And just in case we are, our sound systems include some of the highest purity copper cables with a solid 14AWG gauge.