Why Do Cables Matter?

@jasonbourne71 Wrote:

Blame it on Noel Lee! In the Days of Yore audio hobbyists used zip cord - and nobody cared or complained! Then in 1976 Mr. Lee started selling 10 gauge fine multi-strand cable in a clear jacket. He called it Monster Cable and it was an overnight success! Lee claimed his cable was better because the high frequencies traveled faster on the outside and the bass frequencies had more oomph due to the thickness of the cable. Cleaner, clearer highs and greater bass mojo compared to zip cord! All these claims by Lee were unsubstantiated by any lab measurements! He said " just listen". The "My golden ears told me it is so" crowd fell for this hype and bought miles of Monster Cable, making Noel Lee a multi-millionaire! Soon other entrepreneurs took notice and started their own wire businesses. They discovered that all you need was a nicely made product with a catchy name and a liberal amount of print spin (this was pre- Internet). Lab measurements not needed!

I agree!+2

Mike

@thyname I have several speakers, and different types of speakers, of various prices (though by the way I have not found that price determines musical satisfaction level nor even necessarily correlates with it).  Some I've had for a long and satisfying time, and some are newer.  

But it ain’t my speakers that are at issue here.

if you don't like them return them, nothing complicated here...try something else or not...

soix 6,892 posts 06-06-2023 at 05:17pm

I won’t even bother reading this ridiculous thread. I’ll only say just put crap tires on a Ferrari or Porsche and see what that gets you. Chain only as strong as the cheapest link. Underspend on cables at your own peril. They’re a necessary evil, so just deal with it.

————-

@soix …. you nailed it , sir! “Point, Set, and Match!” in tennis jargon.

There exists an undeniable embedded schism in this hobby that is shared in every audio forum The cold, hard fact is that it’s a binary choice belief based on personal experience in these all too-often and oft-repeated disputed cable values challenges.

Simply put, there is a minority cohort of cable naysayers that are polar opposites and diametrically opposed to the cable advocates; with an absolute zero success of either side ever convincing the other camp of changing their position.

As @soix clearly and eloquently summarized in his post …. Do watcha want and carry on…. Fine ,…. No worries …. But kindly resist an urge of floating futile, boring, and entirely predictable stand-off result in new cable “yay or nay cable value” posts .

the following quote fits:

“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

Albert Esinstein

Just a wild guess, less than $2,000 a pair? If so, who in the right mind would spend $2,000 on speaker wire for speakers costing a few hundred bucks? 

I once had $3k cables on speakers that cost me ≈$400 forty years ago.

Kimber BiFocal and bi-wired, XO recapped Spica TC-50. Scarily musical.

I laugh when I hear $50k speakers. Mostly because they are badly designed wrt to time coherence.