Do speaker cables really make a difference ?

Yes they make a difference.

But it is of less contribution the big elephant in your system for "sounding".

Most are connecting their speaker cable between a crossover and a (power) amplifier.

It has so much bigger impact that we use and have a big crossover between the amplifier and the speaker driver.

If do the crossover is before the power amplifier that is connected directly to the driver/speaker. That is "sounding" considerable better than a speaker cable swap in a passive system. Of so many reasons.

The only drawback is convenience, convenience and convenience.

Go active if you want a cheaper way for getting high end sound in the LONG run. Or keep switching out your amps, speakers (including speaker cables) in different ways rest of your life in hope to get a different result..

Make a change that counts or live with a system compromise because of convenience in my opinion and experience.

Since you're on the topic of speaker cables, does anyone have any knowledge or experience with Kubala Sosna cables? Thanks.

@jasonbourne52 

I'm sceptical of cable claims too.  But not such a flat-earther as to say speaker cables make no difference.  If you can hear an improvement in a bliind test then spend a bit of money on speaker cables but never nearly as much as on an active component such as speakers, amps, source.  A few $100 maybe.  Always test blind; never give in to confirmation bias.

But mains cables and fuses cannot make any difference as long as they are correctly rated.  Volts is volts, amps is amps, but cable can change the presentation of a complex musical waveform.

There is only one way to find out, as I recently did for my own curiosity. Reading what others think, either for or against, about the need for "better" cables is useless. You need to make that determination yourself. Follow what I did and you will have your answer. Contact a retailer that will allow for a return within 60 days. All it will cost you is the return shipping to make your own determination. It would have cost me all of $28 + insurance to find out for myself that YES, speaker cables and interconnects do make a difference. So I kept them. I contacted a popular online retailer and asked them to ship a full set of the most recent Shunyata Venom-X cables. The first cables I swapped out were the speaker cables. I was pleasantly surprised at what I heard. I listened to a total of 10 albums between SACD and vinyl. Then I would replace another cable in my system and again listen to the same 10 albums. By the time I replaced all cables and listened to the same 10 album each time my system was truly "singing" to me. For years I have been skeptical. Now I am not. They do sound different and in my case they sound significantly better than what I was using. Total cost was in the neighborhood of $4,300. Not a lot different, if at all, than adding a new device to the system to enhance the sound. I am happy I did this little experiment.

edit: Don’t shy away from buying "open box" cables as they will be much less expensive. I did that with the Shunyata speaker cables and saved $700.

On this forum they do. On scientific forums they don't.