Do speaker cables really make a difference ?

A very respected loudspeaker developer told me that they had put needles into a potato and used that as a loudspeaker cable. They couldn't distinguish the sound of the potato from that of the very respected high priced cables.

Yes, but you neglected to mention that the potato cables used in that comparison are well known to a certain subset of audiophiles as Kartoffel Klassiks, and they perform particulate well with sour cream and chives. 😀

Brilliant Whipsaw lol

Yes jump on them ASAP!!

After getting my Pioneer SX-1280 back from a full recap, I wanted to upgrade the old "by the roll" 16 gauge wire with 12 gauge.  I had already upgraded the crossovers on my HPM-100 200w version speakers which included banana plug posts.  So with the addition of 12 gauge push terminal to banana plug adapters on the SX-1280, I purchased Mediabridge 12AWG Ultra Series 12 FT cables.  For what I need It is solid.  (And the cables are reasonably priced). 
 

Bottomline, make sure what you have is solid as It relates to gauge, material, connectors and you will be fine. 

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They most certainly do make a difference. I recently moved things around and had to sell my Morrow Audio SP-6'S because they weren't long enough for my current configuration and replaced them with a pair of second hand Canare 4S11 cables and hooked them up bare wire and let me tell you that everything collapsed and sounds thin as all hell with no details! I'm glad that I only paid $40 for the Canare cables. What a disappointment! If anyone has used the Morrows close to the SP-6'S and knows of something close to that sound quality please let me know. I'm disabled now and can no longer afford to buy the Morrows brand new. Any help is appreciated.