Flat speaker cables versus round core cables

Flat speaker cables like the ones Nordost makes tend to be the cables people go to when they want to brighten things up. In a sytem that tends to be very warm or laid back sounding this helps a lot to make things more lively.

For me Analysis Plus cables accentuated the low end way to much in my system. I needed Nordost to show me how cables are suppose to disappear and make it seem as if the speakers were attached directly to the power amps outputs :-)

Matt M

flat cables have a flatter response

round cables are rounder sounding... 😁😂😅

on a somewhat more serious note, nordosts typically do sound brighter and more ’spotlit’ among the better branded cables, but i have no idea whether it is due to their physical shape/configuration 

The Silversmith Fideliums are not bright.

Audio Envy SP-12 aren't exactly flat, but they're not round either.

After 50 years of pursuing high end audio, I have never found a single technology overwhelmingly the determinant of the sound quality. It is only one parameter in a mix of many.
 

While I found really cheap interconnects can be categorized into copper, silver coated copper, and silver to predict the ultimate sonic characteristics.

Move up a level and you have companies combining, geometry, diaelectrics, metal type, grain length… etc. and one parameter becomes irrelevant. They must be judged on their overall sonic character in your system. 

      OF COURSE: my first post was a joke, EXCEPT for the fact that the Big Silver Oval proved the most neutral cable I’d auditioned.

      Given the plethora of cable construction methods and configurations extant, listening is the sole way to determine what works best, in one’s own system/room and to their ears.  (+1 to ghdprentice)

      Something many ignore is the fact that the more neutral/transparent a cable* is; the more it will reveal strengths/weaknesses, elsewhere in the system (before and after).

           *Or: anything else (neutral/transparent) installed/added to any given system.

      iow: Something that’s ACTUALLY, "better", (as regards transparency) won’t necessarily sound better to the listener, if a presentation change made (something revealed) doesn’t suit their tastes.