DO CABLES REALLY MATTER?

There’s plenty of snake oil in the cable business, and plenty of good value up until a quality threshold is reached. The law of diminishing returns comes into play here. Take speaker cables for example. You don’t need to spend hundreds of dollars per foot to realize excellent performance. I’ve been using Monster Standard 12AWG cable in a bi-amp setup with a pair of vintage NAD integrated amplifiers (3025i and 3225PE), and I’m very happy with the results. These cables didn’t cost a fortune, heck, they only cost about $100 not including the Monster banana plugs that cost another $60. The results are there, and I’m happy. I bet most other people would be too. 

Sometimes nicely priced can be 200 or 2000 it depends on what you are personally willing to do. It’s up to you. Find your sound and get there. At the end of the day it’s up to you to get the best sound you like out your system. Some do it cheaper than others. Some do it with generic monoprice. Some do it in the high end. Do,what works for you with your equipment in your listening enviorment. 

It’s funny how we get in these debates with people who have and never will hear your system in your listening enviorment. Very few people in the USA have my speaker. I have one of about 10 pair in the whole country at this time.  In addition very few people own my integrated KR Audio va900 or my Dac Resonessence Mirus Pro.  I think everybody reading this thread needs to know that your equipment and cabling combinations will perform differently from what they might do in some else’s listening enviorment.  Room dimensions.  Carpet vs hardwood floors. Speaker placement all play a part. So does recording quality. Trial and error is important for you in your system so enjoy your equipment and cables and don’t worry about what others say. Most of the time they will never hear your kit. Find you a knowledgeable sales guy who actually loves music. It’s a big help. Thank you Bob Spence at affirm Audio. Gary at Audio emotion in Scotland. Rick Schultz at high fidelity cables. Scott at Advanced Home theater systems for assisting me with demos and arriving at my system! 

So true. System and room acoustics differ necessarily. Yet the debates of refutation abound. But remember what elizabeth reminds us of regarding the price recommendation for the newbie purchasers: one should consider spending on cables 10% of the total cost of the system. Audiophiles are exempt from this advice—lol.

By way of example, I’m running a full loom of IC cables from Teo Audio between only an Oppo DVD player, a Teo Audio Liquid Pre passive and a pair of ATC SCM20-2 active monitors. System components (including power accessories and PC’s) cost me ~$13,000. The IC cables cost ~$2,500. So my IC cable cost exceeds 16% of total system costs.