Dragon1952 & Larryb,
If you can't listen to a passage as speaker cable is switched and identify which is which, your preferences are based on something other than your auditory experience. If you can reliably distinguish among the speaker cables, then I grant it could take substantial listening to determine which you prefer. But I'm sketpical about your ability to tell the fancy speaker leads from 10 - 14 AWG zip cord, unless the fancy leads distort the signal, i.e. provide a "warmer" sound that covers up defects by effectively low-pass filtering.
I've been a HiFi enthusiast since the early '50s, then did research in binaural auditory processing -- I was attracted by the professional audio gear in the lab, before becomming director of a high tech research center. I do love this stuff, but I recognize that mystic and lore, as well as hyper advertising plays a large role in what we hear. Certainly loud speakers, the point where electrical is tranduced back to acoustic energy, are not accurate reproducers of recorded sound, and we all grow accustomed to particular distortions we prefer. Thus, you get the tube vs. solid state, analog vs. digital preferences, and the devotion ot particular speaker systems.
Still, the challenge I suggest is can you tell the difference. If you can't, why waste money on expensive cable that might be better spent on better speakers?
db
