[Closed] Does speaker cable actually make a difference?

Depends which way round you put it

Of course it does!

Why else would someone make £25,000 RCA cables? https://www.kronosav.com/collections/interconnects/products/siltech-triple-crown-interconnect

It can't be just snake oil can it?

Christ no, snake oil.

In my book, a decent cable is way better than cheap stuff from Screwfix, but when you start spending silly money it's the law of diminishing returns.

I use Chord Company RumourX and I like them.

Do you want the short answer or the longer one?

Short answer: "No" so long as you're not using shitty bell wire and 99p interconnects.

In a double blind test, no one will be able to tell the difference between an expensive HiFi cable and a 2.5mm twin & earth mains cable. In any test which isn't double blind, the expensive cable will be 'far superior'.

it’s the law of diminishing returns

Exactly this.

In a double blind test, no one will be able to tell the difference between an expensive HiFi cable and a 2.5mm twin & earth mains cable.

I got lambasted last time I said this but I stand by it, domestic mains cable is about the best speaker cable you can get.

In any case, you're playing records, speaker wire is not your limiting factor here. </contentious>

You want cables that can actually carry the current you want to deliver, but £10-15 is ridonkulous.

This should be more than adequate -

https://www.richersounds.com/gale-symphony-300.html

Just call Richer Sounds and ask them to spec up a cheap cable e.g. under £3/m

Get some budget Mark Grant banana connectors and you're good for 10+ years

If you've got any digital devices, make sure you stock up on £1450 usb cables.
https://www.audiosanctuary.co.uk/vertere-pulse-hb-double-usb-cable.html
😆

Standard stuff from richer sounds will be fine. My parents have one of those little Denon midi systems, it came with what is pretty much bell wire. I swapped it for the richer sounds stuff, I thought it sounded different/betterer. Ma and pa didn't care.
I have never tried grey cable, would be fine also.
I did have some crappy connectors once, kept coming loose so got some better ones from rs. Sounded the same but didn't come loose again
First commandment of hifi -
Crap in = Crap out. Spend money where it counts

You'd notice much more of an improvement in audio playback/sound quality if you place speakers correctly in the room and pay heed to the room acoustics with absorption/diffusion treatment - the room is a massive contributing factor to how a system sounds, once you get that sorted then spend a few £ on cables but don't think you need to spend a fortune as you will not hear a difference that justifies the cost. I use basic cables on my system, all cables cost well under £40 - audioquest pearl usb from iMac to Cambridge Audio CXN v2 network streamer/dac and basic neutrik/van damme balanced xlr cables to active sub and active speakers.

I bought the above cables more for the manufacturing quality than for any perceived sound improvement

In a double blind test, no one will be able to tell the difference between an expensive HiFi cable and a 2.5mm twin & earth mains cable. In any test which isn’t double blind, the expensive cable will be ‘far superior’

This.  I think that covers all bases admirably.  If you look at the manufacturers sites for people who make the sort of cable you would use when doing an installation in a mastering room you aren't seeing these crazy prices.

The directional thing if more interesting.  You tend to get directional cable 'assemblies' where there might be some components in the terminating connector, but the cable itself isn't directional in any known way.  The arrow on the outside is really just for convenience in the final assembly rather than anything else.  Same way as with a red/black pair doesn't mean that only positive voltages can be on the red side

or something like that

Decent, yes. Extortionate no. My go to cables (speakers and interconnects) were always RS Components. I haven't needed to run up any more for years but still have plenty left on the drum for when.

Thanks all, think i am going for Chord Company C-Screen, figure it is better than basic, but still only £5 a metre and only need 6 metres, so nothing too daft.

Any recommendations then on best place to set speakers, i know you should not place them directly in a corner? So sound doesnt "bounce" around?

@scud, honestly save yourself 25 quid and get some twin power cord. Hell they even do nice colours of it.

The directional thing if more interesting. You tend to get directional cable ‘assemblies’ where there might be some components in the terminating connector, but the cable itself isn’t directional in any known way.

Audio is a.c. Alternating Current, so the electrons flow equally in both directions. Hence anything mentioning directivity is just complete and utter BS. For half of each cycle the current flows in one direction down each cable and then for the other half of thc cycle it flows in the other direction. The current is changing direction continually at up to 20,000 a second (assuming you're young and can still hear 20 kHz).

I gave up using cables a while back and have moved over to hydraulic. Provided you can get a decent bleed they are much better...

I went from £3/m ish copper to QED silver which was IIRC £5/m, so about a £30 upgrade. I thought it was a fair bit better given the outlay, but you'd never have known if you hadn't tested back to back. The previous stuff which had been my first 'proper cable' upgrade hadn't made any difference at all regardless of how much I wanted it to, so I'm fairly confident it wasn't my imagination. I didn't try twin and earth mains cable.

The best thing is when people buy expensive speaker cable and then wire them out of phase 😉

Cables can absolutely sound different.

I would get decent stands and positioning in this scenario first, it's hard to try cables out, and I'm not sure they would make much difference here.

The current is changing direction continually at up to 20,000 a second (assuming you’re young and can still hear 20 kHz).

Much like trees not really caring if the forest is empty or not, the electrons will still be doing the dance even if you're old and your ears are knackered 🙂

An old friend owns a music design post production company here in Glasgow. When theye opened their new premises many moons ago Giles was showing it off to me and pointed out several things- a pair of speakers costing 50k,80k video systems, the main mixing board which wouldnt have looked out of place on the starship enterpirse, and other amazing things, He also pointed out one of the cable management systems and the cables on that were extremely expensive, I think they were like the above post huge amount of cash, so yup, i guess so.

chunky cable for speakers, bigger is better
and if you are not bi amping - bi wiring still does make a difference IMO though not many domestic speaker have the option and would require some fettling

and +1 to room layout, in general speakers sound better firing along the long axis of the room, some are actually designed to be used agains a wall or in corners or may have a switch to adjust the LF response to suit placement.

stands are nice and its easy to make your own.

ou tend to get directional cable ‘assemblies’ where there might be some components in the terminating connector,

Such as...?

Make sure to position the source higher than any speakers so you get the help of gravity pulling the music down to them

I’ve spent a lot of time in recording studios and mastering suites in my 51years and I’ve yet to see one cabled with anything ‘posh’ the majority use VanneDamme white or blue.
Read into that what you will.

Room treatment, so its not an echo chamber, point the speakers at the listener, positioning the speakers so they are not bouncing sound off walls or corners.

Then buy a roll of twin & earth cable, normal domestic power cable and some connectors to replace the bell wire speaker cables that normally come with whole systems.

Good old standard QED 72-Strand. Perfectly adequate for any real-world hifi setup.
Interconnects, don’t spend silly money, good solid plugs on the ends of a reasonable quality wire will do, but make sure the actual sockets are properly cleaned, especially the outside, use a fine plastic scouring pad to remove any accumulated dust and corrosion to ensure a nice clean connection, that’s more important than fancy expensive wire.
Then enjoy the music.
One tip - whatever the speakers are mounted on, pot some blobs of blu-tac under the corners, it’ll isolate the cabinets from what they’re stood on, and prevent them from getting knocked over if they’re on stands.

Any fat cable will do. Mains 2.5mm^2 T&E works well. As does 2-core mains cable.

79-strand 2-ply speaker cable works well and feels thick and good.

I got some 4-ply fancy cables for bi-wiring with a couple of pairs of speakers I bought used. No difference between those and 79 strand except they’re harder to route.

ignore the BS and just use some of the thick-ish cable that’s cheap.

Such as…?

small ferrite beads for example.  If what you were concerned about was RF pickup then it might make a difference (I'm not saying it does - I use mains wire).  Once you add a component on one end of the cable rather than the other then the cable is 'directional'.  Remember that a cable is actually a mixture of inductance and capacitance rather than just a piece of wire.  Whether or not that has any effect at the frequencies we are talking about is another matter but if you take that and add any component on one end only the cable becomes 'directional'.  The same is also true if the cable is a pair of wires inside an outer sheath that acts as a shield.  If you only ground it at one end then the whole thing becomes directional.  Again this would be quite normal practice with HF signals and I would be surprised if it makes a difference at audio frequencies but from a pure practical point of view the cable has become directional

Seems like you probably have your answer for your initial question, but would like to add a resounding 'yes' to do they make a difference.
Auditioned a CD player years back, and salesman said he just wanted to try some new speaker cable that had just come, would I mind - of course not and he proceeded to change things over. There was probably £300 difference between what he had originally and there was definitely a noticeable difference - mind would not say 'better', just different - definitely more bass, more weight and more presence, but I actually preferred the original sound. So yes they make a difference, but its subjective if that difference is 'better' or not.

How did the new passive cable know which electrons were Bass?

Was the demo CD by Placebo?

Always instructive when following these threads to observe that no-one actually reveals what music they listen to...

cable pobably needed to be "run -in" 😉

I use Metal cables for Classical is that wrong? 😉

I had one marantz system, a cheap Sanyo system and bought a second hand Yamaha system. On the way back from buying the Yamaha system I stopped in a car boot sale and bought a £5 set of speakers from a car boot sale.

I tried all of them back to back with posh cable from the 2nd hand set, cheapest richer sounds set and the thinnest cable imaginable from the Sanyo set.

I could hear a difference between the amps and speakers. I could not hear any difference in the wires.

As for which sounded better.... They all sounded like music.

My hi-fi is on my right (no, erm left!), with the speakers 4 feet apart. My neighbours would complain if I had it at any decent volume. I still enjoy the hell out of my music, so speaker cables would make no difference to me whatsoever. Any decent volume music is played through headphones.
I mean surely it depends on your set up and how you listen?

Do yer self a favour and ignore everything audiophiles say. There isn't another subject on the internet where such pish is spoken. 😆

What's an audiophile?...a hifi enthusiast that disagrees with you? 😂

small ferrite beads for example. If what you were concerned about was RF pickup then it might make a difference

Why would it make any difference which end they were at?

If you only ground it at one end then the whole thing becomes directional.

I don't think I've come across shielded speaker cables.

I'd suggest everyone goes and does some reading on the 'skin effect'. It might go some way in explaining the difference in sound some people can apparently identify with cables. Although I should add I don't believe it makes much difference in a home audio system with short cable runs and speakers with inductances vastly higher than the cables.

I also read an article online recently where the frequency response at the speaker was compared when using fancy cable and a wire coat hanger. The result was effectively zero difference, a couple of tiny variances which could be considered within the measurement system tolerance.

This guy made Hifi back in the day that would set the average person back the deposit on a small house.

His article explains it better than anyone else I’ve heard:

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

I particularly liked "Ken Kessler and several other audio perverts..."