I think that the ongoing debate regarding cables is rendered moot when one considers what a difference an amp, or a preamp, or any piece of equipment contributes to a system's overall synergy. Thiel took me on quite an interesting journey to find the "right" amplification in order to hear them at their best. (Even though they sounded better than anything else I've heard hooked up with some old speaker wire I had lying around after I turned my Klipsch Epic 3's into CD cases.) Come to think of it, when I dismantled those Epics for the repurposing as CD cases I was surprised to discover that the internal, factory wiring was...speaker wire exactly like I used to hook them up. Go figger.
After many an amp/preamp combo I finally stumbled upon Pass Labs. Boing! Kapow! All that good stuff. And I mean great stuff. My CS3.5's (at the time) became incredible loudspeakers as opposed to merely great loudspeakers. I had all my associated equipment, the amp and preamp, the cd player, the server, the turntable, maple platforms, this and that, without ever considering upgrading the speaker wire, err...cables. So I did.
I have to admit that all of the aforementioned equipment IS easier to judge as to whether or not any makes a tangible difference in bettering a system. We also get to SEE all the aforementioned equipment joining the herd whereas cables disappear into the background.They don't glow, they don't have remote controls, there's no hands on finagling after we've connected 'em. BORING!
So, the very last thing I started paying attention to in my system were the cables. Everything I had was still was hooked up with what the manufacturers provided in the boxes, those Best Buy rca cable interconnects, the power cords, what have you. I went around the corner to my local bricks and mortar audio shop in beautiful downtown Lake Grove, NY, and bought a bunch of Transparent Music Wave connects and speaker cables. (The only cable I could not change was on the Marantz TT-15 turntable, which was essentially a Clearaudio model with a Marantz badge slapped on it.) For some silly reason they only supplied a proprietary cable which could not swapped out. Harrrumph!
I had been enjoying my system for quite a while with the ordinary cables by this point. Now, with all the new cables in place I settled back. Did I hear a palpable, tangible difference when I first hooked them up? No, I did not. But here's the rub - after a good period of time had passed I was doing some house chores and had to un-hook most of my system. In the interim one afternoon I decided that I needed musical accompaniment to my sanding and painting and scraping, so I hooked up the 3.5's with the old speaker wire.
Jaw drop. They sounded, thin - almost lifeless. I double checked all the cables on everything. All good.
While I will never spend the sort of money that "high end" esoteric cables ask for, I've spent more than I ever thought I would. I was a non-believer. Ask Jafant. Now my current system is all Transparent cables again. I still have a spool of bare-assed, simple, bigbox store speaker wire that I use occasionally to hook up a pair of Usher bookshelfs for kicks, but I'm sold on "better" cables.
So there's my two cents.
