what do you know"

There are no differences, it's in your head.

Try this experiment: gather 3-4 cables, from cheap $5 to as expensive you want to go. Get a friend you can trust and get him to randomly hook up the different cables. Tell him to be as tricky as he wants, and do this several times and make sure he records the results of which cables you prefer. Guarantee you will probably pick the $5 cables as often as the $1000 cable.

I have tried this experiment many times with so-called audiophiles. None can ever pick out the expensive cables. Placebo effect. BTW, all the wiring used inside your speakers and components are regular copper wire-nothing fancy, nothing 'magical'.

If someone can actually explain to me in scientific terms how speaker cables make an 'audible' difference I would shut up, but they can't and that's that.

And don't get me started n 'power cords'...

The people who claim they can hear a difference are too scared to b proven wrong, they won't do the test and will make excuses.

Speaker cable has NO MEASURABLE distortion, it's static...it transmits a signal, that's it.

Good luck!

Baroque_Lover,

I wonder if anyone will take you up on your offer to make a test with a friend?

I recall that Mike Lavigne did this exact type test about a year ago and was
unable to pick one good cable over another good cable using his own system
when blind ( but heard a difference when sighted )The test at least showed
that differences between cables are vanishingly small on one of the most
resolving systems on A'gon. I don't recall the details - so excuse me if I didn't
get all the facts straight - but I know that it was a "revelation" that
only someone as decent and generous as Mike Lavigne would admit to. Of
course, I regularly admit to being tin eared so nobody would be surprised if I
could not hear a difference and with my modest system it would prove
nothing, as doubters would just point to my crap system.

Baroque lover, you are not entirely correct. I have in my system a set of SEEC speaker cables that have the correct level of highs, mids, and bottom end. When I tried a set of VD David 2.0's, the bottom end increase was dramatic, so much so, that I had to pull them from the system. They are for sale in the classifieds now. If these were to be switched in with the ones I have now, I could tell in a minute which ones were in. The same goes for a new power cord I put on my CDP. It increased the bass so much, I had to take it out. Maybe the people you tried this with cannot tell, but don't group everyone in with your group. There are alot of different ways of going about trying this test, and it doesn't sound like it was very controled.
Just because some folks can't hear the difference doesn't make it snake-oil. If it doesn't work for you, fine, let it go. No need to discredit the folks who posted above that do hear a difference.

Abucktwoeighty,

read above. The difference you are hearing is the placebo effect. The truth of the matter is that electricity DOESN'T CARE that the wire it is traveling through has "5 dialectric layers of true ground float, hot fused with ProtecX treatment that is cryogenically treated".

IT'S STATIC!

There are hundreds of ways you can change the way a loudspeaker sounds in the crossover alone--just has nothing to do with the brand of wire used internally or externally.

Beyond length and gauge, you are paying for marketing and looks.

Here is some reading...I suggest people read it, regardless of what they truly believe, and put your own prejudices aside, and test you OWN theories that you can hear a difference. If it makes as big a difference as most claim you shouldn't need super rigorous testing conditions. All you have to do is point out which cable 'sounds' better.

http://www.tnt-audio.com/clinica/spkcbl_e.html

http://www.roger-russell.com/wire/wire.htm

http://www.axiomaudio.com/cabletruth.html

I know of two designers who use very basic cable in all of their designs and in their testing facilities. Alan Shaw and Vince from Totem. Alan uses 79 Strand copper and Vince uses a basic 14 gauge copper wire.

the above three links are actually all different.

Regards.