Speaker Cables? why all the hype for expensive speaker wire?

You hear what you hear when i first started in the hobby i could not tell the difference due to gear and speakers but as my system got better and i had logged more hours of listening i definitely could hear the difference that better wire made.

"After listening to many speaker cables, I am listening to basic 14 Gauge, high purity copper speaker wire and find myself shaking my head.  Does this basic speaker wire sound better than cables many times the price?  I am really starting to ponder that question.  I think I am hearing things on my records I never heard before and better balance of sound.  What are your thoughts?"

Perception is reality.  It is inevitable that some type of expectation exist prior to the experiment.  If you felt like 14 gauge wire from Parts Express might sound better than 14 gauge wire from Home Depot, it will.  Audiophilia is a kind of religion.  All it takes is faith.

@mikelavigne

i have my most expensive cables for my phono cables and phono preamp; that is where i find the best ROI and the biggest 

Thanks for the tip Mike.  I had my speaker cables sorted out, mostly determined my interconnects and Ethernet cable targets, guess I’ll have to determine and budget for phono cables…sigh…

I have no dog in this fight (debate), but I'll simply say that, in my recent experience, a change in cables in my system has been transformative by every measurable listening metric:  range, soundstage, imaging, etc.  We are very active listeners, virtually daily, so we are very tuned into to the sonic dynamics we've come to expect from our 2-channel system for the last four+ years from our originally installed (reputable) cables.  Our recent upgrade to new speaker and power cables has been the qualitatively best investment we could have made.  In short, I now know that cables matter!