Cheap/expensive or expensive/cheap?

If the the main conductor is copper, ICs are coax, the speaker cables are the correct gauge, neither are excessively long and both make good contact with the sockets then they'll be about as good as a cable can be. In an electrically noisy environment balanced cables are a good idea and it's best to go for low capacitance cable for TT interconnects longer than a couple of feet. All of that is achievable without spending much cash and will add no discernable (or probably measureable) noise or distortion.
Now look at the specification for a loudspeaker driver, this is a link to one that I'm currently using in a design... I would describe this as a high quality driver but it still has a frequency response within it's usable range that varies by 6dB (Seas are unusually honest with their response curves). And this is a very cheap driver with around 13dB variance. In electronics (transport, pre-amp, power amp) both responses would be considered gross distortion. Loudspeakers are not easy to design or build and are worth spending a bit of extra money on. Same goes (to a lesser extent) for the electronic components. The aim of many amplifier manufacturers is to create the equivalent of a 'straight wire with gain' and I don't think any have achieved quite that to date... so I find it strange that so many people spend such a disproportionate amount on the wires in their system.
I think you'll find spending most money on the elements of the system that make big transformations will get you the best value for money. By 'big transformations' I mean converting digital to analogue (DAC), converting the grooves in a record to an electronic signal (cart, TT and phono amp) and turning the electronic signal into the audible movement of air (speakers). 

How cheap are you talking about ?Speaker wire with good copper core always wins out .If you had sliver yes they would be a better conductor but only by a little while the cost would be great.Thats the thing..I have watched youtube vids of DIY Speaker Cables that were well made  For less than $100 .These same looking cables are being sold by some audio Companies for hundreds  more.Buyer beware.YOUR equipment is $3,000 it should be better than $1,000. Equipment  even if you use out of the box cables .Good luck with the $1,000 equipment with $1,000 worth of cables sounding as good.

A good system with a bad power cable will sound better than a bad system with a good power cable. Same applies to all other cables. Yes, cables make a difference but they aren’t going to move the needle as much as fantastic primary components...not even close.

I actually completely disagree with this. Cables can make or break a good system.

I would rather do a $3000 system with excellent cables instead of a $10k system with mediocre cables.

The primary example I have is when I tested and compared two DACS. One was a $300 DAC and the other was a $2,000 DAC. With cheap cables, these DACs actually sounded pretty much the same. However, when I put in very high end and transparent cables, it become very apparent how inferior the $300 DAC was.

In your example, the sound quality difference between a $3k system and a $10k system is not enough to justify the $10k choice. The $3k system is already close enough. We are rapidly approaching the point of diminishing returns here.

Now if you were comparing a $500 system to a $3k system, then I would choose the $3k system with cheap cables every time.

three_easy_payments A good system with a bad power cable will sound better than a bad system with a good power cable. Same applies to all other cables. Yes, cables make a difference but they aren’t going to move the needle as much as fantastic primary components...not even close.

auxinput2 I actually completely disagree with this.

Cables makes a difference...

But i am flabbergasted by these many cables thread....

The really fundamental audio basic problem is:

How do i embed mechanically( controlling resonance and isolating/coupling/decoupling vibrations),
How do i embed electrically (controlling the general noise floor of the house,
How do i embed acoustically ( with passive materials room treatment but also active methods of controls),
my audio system first....


After that we will think about not too much costly good cables if necessary...

Before that putting so called good cables on speakers in a bad acoustical room, in a high level noise floor in the house, and with no attention to resonance or vibrations controls, knowing that all non treated room are bad, is like putting first a plaster in a cutted finger for a man laying in the concrete and hurted on the head by a hammer few minutes ago...

Can we speak about other thing than cables in Audio?

I am kiding, for sure we are free to speak about cables, and it can be interesting, but there is so much more important matters to give attention first....


P.S. The price of a cable has no relation in general with his S. Q. in a particular system and will sound less good or less bad in some  system and not so in another audio system.... Forget price....