Most important technical aspects of speaker wires? Capacitance, inductance, etc...


Looking into speaker wires, and technical specs or construction stated by companies, has anyone determined, measured of figured out WHAT are the most technical parameters for picking speaker wires? Is it Capacitance, inductance, gauge, insulation, construction, material used, shielding, etc...?

I do not buy thousands of dollars in speaker wires, specially for my $5K setup, but within reputable speaker wire companies being Furutech, Cardas, Audioquest, Nordost, etc... how would one pick wires? Obviously listening is the only real solution, however, many have to be broken in, not everyone has the options of trial, and it's a difficult task to complete if you're looking at multiple manufacturers, and various brands within each.

One last question, the outer sleeves used on high end cables, are they at all necessary outside of looking nicer?
alexb76
Some shops will let you borrow a length of cable, and I believe even some online vendors will do that for a fee that can be credited against purchase.

Just be open to the possibility that the difference is too small to pick out reliably, and that the wires inside the speakers themselves are likely to be no more expensive than this; https://www.amazon.com/Damme-Professional-Studio-Grade-12AWG/dp/B0034KDGFY/ref=sr_1_1?gclid=Cj0KCQjw...
alexb76,

Fortunately you already seem to know the answer is to go and find as many potential candidates as you possibly can and listen to them. Unfortunately you need to do this whether it is a lot or a few, whether they are new or burned-in or used, and whether they are anywhere near your budget or not. There's just no way around it, and the more you do it (even when it seems futile) the better result you will ultimately achieve.

I have auditioned a ton of them and would not personally recommend any of the ones you mentioned. Its not that they are bad, just that when compared side by side they do not give as high value for the money as comparable Synergisitic Research cables. The others tend to be more like band-aids or MyFi, which is why you will hear a lot of comments about system matching. A really good cable will sound really good in your system, period. Its the marginal ones that need to be "matched".

Its a lot of trouble but when you are up in the $5k system range well worth the effort. The general rule I have used for years is about 20% wire. But everyone messes that up so let me explain.

Its not telling you to go out and spend $1k on speaker cable. Its not even telling you to spend $1k altogether on wire (power cords, interconnects, speaker cables) its just to give you some idea what range to be looking in. Because you could spend $5k and wind up with crap, or $500 and not believe how much difference it made. $500 can actually get you a lot if you do it right. Realistically you would be looking at something like
https://www.audiogon.com/listings/lis9bdha-synergistic-research-sr-core-speaker-cables-8ft-with-bana...
and
https://www.audiogon.com/listings/lis9e47i-synergistic-research-reference-a-c-master-coupler-ac-cabl...
Either of which will be hard to beat for the money.


Another one you want to consider is cerious. They sound wonderful with my equipment, but... As mill states above, speaker cables are very system dependent. What are you using now?