How important are speaker cables to the sound emanating from the speakers?

I'm with Doug - I had the same experience with a $350 mini system where upgraded power and speaker cables made significant improvements in SQ. And the cable used was not that expensive.

Regards

As with most things in audio the effect of speaker cables will be very system dependent.  Case in point, my experience has been the opposite of 69pete's in that in my system interconnects produce very noticeable differences whereas with speaker cables the differences are much more subtle.  But to one of Al's fine points, my speakers are an easy load and impedance stays relatively high across the frequency spectrum.  I use Acoustic Zen Satori shotgun biwire and find them to be an excellent all-around cable, but obviously YMMV.  

You opened up a Pandora's box of opinions here ... so let me stoke it a little further. Go ahead and Google [ speaker cable blind listening tests ].

Or better yet, get a friend and some cables and try it yourself.

Those who don't like what they read will say that blind listening doesn't work. That you need to live with the component to learn all of its true nuances. Funny how we enjoy the only products on earth where blind testing isn't useful!! Yes it's true for example that a loudspeaker may reveal itself to have certain spikes or dips or anomalies only after listening to many different performances over time. But I immediately know if a speaker that I haven't heard before is great or not after 30 seconds of listening, and then further listening will reveal to me all of its strengths or weaknesses.

I myself have a handful of musical references that I have been using for 20+ years, and so when I listen to a new piece of gear using these references I know almost everything that I need to know immediately. But more often than not, I do know everything I need to know and further listening proves no help. And I work in an industry that requires me to do a lot of blind audio testing on a daily basis.

So of course blind listening is useful in audio, that is self-evident, but it does sometimes require further time and repeated listening.

That being said, go ahead ...  Google speaker cable blind listening tests ...

Happy arguing!

In an interview with one of the audio rags a LONG time ago the great speaker designer/builder Bill Dudleston(Legacy Audio) was asked the importance & order of components in the playback chain.His reply:1.Recordings.2.Speakers.3.Electronics.4.Cables & tweaks...Apparently he,as I,feel cables are of limited importance.

Bill has been showing with Morrow Audio cables since 2013. They seem to like each other. His speakers are usually hooked up to high power solid state electronics from CODA.