No one actually knows how to lculate what speaker cable they need

B4icu,

Idiotic, poorly written quote.

There’s basically nothing to ask you, and I’m not going to stroke your ego by feigning respect for your lack of intelligence by posing an inquiry. Instead, I’m just gonna tell you what’s up.

Just making cables thicker only solves the problem of passing low frequency current. Making cables thicker does the exact opposite to higher frequencies due to inductance and skin effect. That’s why practically nobody uses conductors larger than 14g. If more conductor is required, you use multiple conductors.

Cables are VERY low impedance in the audio spectrum; certainly lower than the output impedance of the vast majority of amps out there. They’re virtually inconsequential to the damping factor of an amplifier.

I’m not sure what made you wake up one morning and think you invented the magic formula everybody else missed for 100 years, but I’m pretty sure you didn’t.

8 Ohm nominal speaker impedance +
0.0256 Ohm cable resistance =
8.0256 total nominal amp load.

Amp output impedance 0.016 Ohms
DF (which is a ratio, not units) into 8 Ohms is 8/0.016 = 500
DF into 8.0256 Ohms is 8.0256/0.016 = 501.6

Big difference. Not.

Hi there . For me every thing is simple. Top line speakers as well as amp ,power amp, preamp, cables and ofcours most expensive on entire world . And no question, no more arguments . It must sound good. I might invent something exceptional something extremely good sounding, but who is going to admire it , I got no name. We already have a gurus who are on the top. I should maybe write, money talks as simple. Thank you , nothing to argue about.

Poor wording on my part.  No the cables do not calculate.  The company measures all of your components' parameters and the company builds a cable with a network that that takes all of those factors into account.  Now your search is over.  Sorry for the ambiguity.  

Mr. stevecham

The speaker's 8 ohms is not a part of this calculation.

Your first par. adds the speaker impedance with the cable resistance (like adding bananas with apples!). The concept is wrong.
The speaker's cables resistance is not part of the load (speakers). They are an extension of the amplifier, just as I claimed before.

Your second par. is also wrong! DF is always related to 8 ohms (@1kHz), even if the actual speaker to connected is other (4 ohms or higher than 8 ohms). It is a fix number = 8.

In overall, your way doesn't fit the actual relations, nor explain what different cables sound different. As if you would be right, all cables would sound the same.