Help with speaker cable under $500 for new system

"Going by
engineering principles would make us to buy only a lamp cord
from Home Depot. "

Is that so bad? There are many other effective ways to tweak the sound. I've put conventional stranded 12 gauge speaker wire into the mix with my gear on occasion out of necessity and have lived to tell. :^)

Back in simpler times, I just recommended lower gauge heavier speaker wire, usually 12 gauge, for everyone if possible and they all lived happily ever after, as far as I know.

I suspect most pro wires follow the same simple principles to produce durable and good sounding speaker wires. There is something to be said for that.

Kijanki, the output impedances of the most popular currently produced Atmasphere amps are in the 2 to 7 ohm area, corresponding to damping factors ranging from a bit more than 1 to about 4 (for an 8 ohm speaker). While those amps are indeed very highly thought of, Ralph/Atmasphere would be the first to admit that his amps are not suitable matches for many speakers, especially given that a considerable majority of available speakers have presumably been designed with the expectation that they would be used with solid state amps having high damping factors/low output impedances.

I certainly agree that the importance of damping factor is often way overblown, especially when the numbers get into the hundreds, not to mention the thousands. But at the same time I don't think it should be ignored altogether, especially when the numbers get into the low double digits. And especially when a solid state amp is being used, and what one presumably wants to hear from the amp is its intrinsic sonic character, not its intrinsic sonic character as modified by avoidable cable effects, even if those effects are small.

Best regards,
-- Al

Get generic 12ga, stranded, copper speaker cable. You can pretend you spent $500 on it if that makes you feel better.

Al, I agree but since source/speaker resistive impedance is likely at least 50% of nominal impedance (perhaps 2/3?) making best overall DF you can achieve equal 2. I would avoid using anything that can lower it further but additional 0.5 ohm would lower DF only by 12.5%. - all assuming that amplifier doesn't contribute anything.

Of course we assume that lower DF effects will be, if anything, negative, while in many cases (overdamped speakers) is perhaps the opposite. We often claim that low source impedance (voltage source) is the best, but then we enjoy higher output impedance (power source) of tube amps.

High DF chasing might not only exclude great cables but also promote selection of poor sounding amps with deep NFB.

Used Analysis plus cables jump on them.