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

I love the smell of cables in the morning.

I have to throw my 2 schillings into the hat, I have been into home audio since I was 17. What I have learned through this journey is buy what you can afford, their is no bad speaker cable, just better, solid core OFC speaker cable sounds cleaner, has what seems like a faster more defined bass response to the speakers and creates a larger more three dimensional space...but this principle only works with a high current amplifier, and neutral sounding speakers and can be slightly on the warm side, but if your gear is under powered, overly bright or tinny or or speakers that are poorly designed and your receiver/ integrated amp or amp and preamp lack that wide sound stage and or using reference speakers, it won’t matter what you use to amplify the signal to the speakers, it will sound like crap...so choose your amplifier based on being high current and not on how many channels of power, I’ve listened to 10 watt tube amps that blew away a 150 watt rated amp without breaking a sweat...so don’t fuss with cables, so much of the cost is in marketing and the fancy jackets they get wrapped in, the least expensive is the copper itself. If you got it, spend it, if ur on a budget go for straight copper if you like it lamp cord. I use cheap 14 gauge in my garage system and it sounds great..just have fun and don’t take it too seriously 

^^^^^^^^^^^ Awwwww Now You’ve Gone N Spoilt It ^^^^^^^^^^^^

Good post @punkrock67

Spend big bucks on a smoking cable its great.

Cables and interconnects do sound different. Putting aside the value discussion, because that is a personal decision, I do certainly hear differences. Much depends on the transparency of the chain. If the other components are very transparent, and capable of full-bandwidth performance, those differences and improvements will be more audible.

As an example, with a system consisting of a Pioneer receiver and Klipsch RP-600M stand mounts, the Synergistic Research Foundation Series speaker cables will not produce as dramatic an improvement as compared to, say Parasound JC1+ driving Magico S5. The second setup is so much more transparent and capable, the improvements yielded by the Foundation cables over other less-capable ones will be clear and present.