I have performed quite a few modifications to existing commercial loudspeaker designs, some of them being as simple as removing and replacing the factory installed cabling with "better" aftermarket wiring. In every case that i can recall, there was always a very noticeable improvement in the sonic presentation. Then again, this may have come from making better connections just as much as replacing the existing wiring. The wiring used in many of these modifications was nothing fancy in itself and available from just about any source of aftermarket cabling. We are talking about cabling that i paid WAY, WAY under a $1 per foot for, yet it was FAR superior to what was used in speaker designs costing multiple thousands of dollars.
Having said that, a very carefully designed product that is "computer optimized" with very tight production tolerances could be "somewhat mangled" by trying to "upgrade" the internal wiring. As Gregm mentions above, some designs take the specific electrical characteristics of the internal cabling into account, both electrically and sonically.
As a case in point, i ran into this with one specific brand / type of speaker many years ago. When i pulled these apart, i found that the manufacturer was using different wiring in various parts of the loudspeaker circuit. Not only was there a difference in the wiring from the woofer to the tweeter, but also what was running on the positive and the negative to the woofer. For a relatively low cost mass produced speaker line, this demonstrated to me that there are still some products / manufacturers that not only pay attention to details, but also build products with their heart and soul invested into them. Sean
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PS... It is NOT abnormal for an aged loudspeaker system with all new internal wiring / new solder connections to sound bright, incoherent and "peaky" when first fired up after the modifications / internal cabling replacement. In many cases, the speaker will sound appallingly bad, to the point of one thinking that the speaker needs to be "broken in" again and / or is beyond salvaging.
Playing the Ayre Acoustics disc ( Track 7 ) on repeat for an extended period of time can make an absolutely staggering positive difference. The more volume that you can safely feed into the system, the better it will work. Having said that, use caution as this specific track can damage your woofers, tweeters and possibly shake things off the wall. Given that the first 5 seconds of this track are "digital silence", DO NOT attempt to initially overcompensate by cranking up the gain if you can't hear anything. What you will hear will be the sound of your woofer cones popping out of their baskets, your amplifier clipping and your wallet draining at a rapid rate.
Before doing this, I would first listen to the speakers as they are after modification. You might not believe the difference in sonics after a few days of consistently applied signal using a disc such as the Ayre. Until you experience something like this for yourself, it is all too easy to be an "unbeliever" in terms of things like solder joints and wiring "breaking in".
