What do $2500 speaker cables sound like?


Sooo curious about this.  I now use cables costing about $200 and 20 yrs old.

dont want to throw out brands, but its well known.

what can someone expect?




jumia
I try not to buy into these post, but OK, here goes. A lot of people saying about lamp/zip cord: well you are certainly free to do what you feel is best for you and your system, and if you want to run .10 cents a foot lamp cord between your several hundred dollar speakers and likewise components, feel free. Or maybe your system is just not resolving enough to hear the difference, or maybe your ears are beyond their years or you have some hearing loss, its understandable. 
Or bigger, maybe you don't know what to listen for? When I was in my early audiophile years, my late teens and early 20's, I always swore I  could not hear a difference in MOST cables, not all. Then a friend who was older and in the hobby for a long time taught me what to listen for, we did some blind A/B and listened for other details. At first I was listening to see which piano note sounded better, or which bass note sounded deeper, that was it, I didn't know any better. That is one part of it and cables will make a difference in those things, but often the differences are much more subtle. However, when I learned how to listed I heard a whole new world and I heard individual instruments open up with separation between each one and clear focus, I heard a soundstage. For the first time I could hear notes coming right out of a sound hole of an acoustic guitar. The differences I hear on notes was also more natural, less edge, now there was a clean defined note with a black background. Now I could hear the differences between a $500 pair of cables and a $1000 pair of cables. Yes, I agree when you get into that price point of cables, the differences are more subtle and you have to know what to listen for and your ears and system have to be equipped to hear and transmit those subtleties. These differences are things you can't measure or show on paper.
I recently spent $2500 on a bi-wire pair of Purist Audio Venustas Luminist, replacing my 20 year old Purist Audio Musaeus and I am glad I spent the difference, the benefits were worth it for me and what I heard.
sugabooger"There is no reason for low capacitance for high efficiency speakers."

This is the sort of funny misinformation and error that is becoming increasing common and frequent from the "new" users who have recently welcomed themselves to this site with odd unusual "scientific" rules, pronouncements, and assessments - all straight from the "bible" of what some now call scientism or measurementalism. 
You can listen to someone like who can't provide any justification for a statement like "use low capacitance cables for high efficiency speakers", be taken in, lose your money, or you can accept some basic realities. The efficiency of a speaker has no bearing on how a cable will interact with it. The impedance of the speaker may, the output impedance / dampening of the amplifier may. The efficiency not at all.

Cable capacitance is like putting a capacitor across your output terminals. I would love for someone to justify how that impacts high impedance speakers as a rule?   Cable inductance can roll off your high frequencies though. Unfortunately, to get low capacitance, you need high inductance. So if you like rolling off the top end, go for it. Realistically it is not going to make much difference to likely older ears.

The problem jumia, is some people will say black, just because someone else said white, even if there is no reason. When you raise the question, they don't address it, they just make insults like the last 4 posts.
Speaker cables are no different than any other component in your system--you must try them out in YOUR system to hear the results.

It is true that you can pay thousands on cables and it can be a complete overpriced waste. But this is true of EVERY component in your system. That is why you TAKE YOUR TIME and try stuff out without committing huge loads of cash.

When we upgraded our cables (interconnects and speaker) from a carbon wire to Cardas Clear, the difference was so substantial that even my audio-pessimist wife DEMANDED we fork over the $10K for them.

When we AUDITIONED the Cardas BEYOND cables, she again DEMANDED we trade up to this $20K set.

And I agreed.

TRY THEM OUT. SEVERAL SETS.

Keep in mind Nelson Pass’ advice on cables, however: the cables should cost several times LESS than the component they are hooked up to. We have $30K monos and $60K speakers, so the cable cost made sense.
Depends on your system.

If your system has sufficient focus and is detailed enough, it will benefit from good cables. If not, it won't. Good cabling may make a mediocre system sound worse.