Cable Costs Relative to System

"Yup, the $100/pair IC's were identical in performannce with perhaps an even greater dynamic range and enhanced clarity"

Yes, I've heard stories like that before. Next person says that he bought $0.12 wire in Home Depot and it was much better than mentioned $100 cables.

Cables do change sound and it my case more expensive cable improved lower midrange that sounded a little thin with AQ Indigo (class D amp) but I'm not sure if next 10x dollar increase would buy audible difference - at least for my inexperienced ears.

What is getting improved might not be appreciated. For instance some don't like certain DACs like Benchmark because their clarity makes them sound "sterile" and "less dynamic". I even heard opinion that instruments should blend more together and guitars sound too clean. Fuzz guitar will always sound more lively than super clean Jazz guitar and if cheaper wire is making it for you - go for it and don't spend money on expensive cables. There is no right or wrong here.

It is also important to mention that placebo effect works in both directions - If you don't believe in cables then cheaper cables will sound better to you. It is possible that in my case more expensive cable gives me only placebo effect but I'm still happy as long as it does. Also cables are non-perishable items and I can spend more to avoid buying them over and over again.

It always puzzles me why people who don't believe in cables post on cable forum. Does anybody know? It sounds a little like deaf man answering add for music teacher just to tell them not to count on him.

Please don't give me BS about helping poor instead of expensive cables. If you want to help poor you should not be in this hobby to start with and you should not drink coffee or alcohol because you could help poor instead(and it is bad for you).

I know this sounds nut case, but I say my system unveils cables for what they are. I can predict how they sound by how they look. Simply said, regardless of any money value, cables with the most insulation sound the worst. With every wrap discarded the cable sounds better. The culprit, as Speltz says on his site, is random white noise bleeding into the music signal. It is woefully loud on my system.

Muralman - from technical point of view dielectric constant of insulation affects capacitance between wires as well as dielectric absorption. Mylar is horrible and it is leading reason of bright tweeters in cheap speakers. Mylar's dielectric constant is in order of 4 while Teflon is about 1.5. Foamed Teflon is even less and oversized sleeves improve it even more (wires like AQ Sky). There is also factor of skin effect that starts at gage 18 for copper at 20kHz. Can all this be audible? I think we can hear what is even very difficult to measure. There are two ways to deal with skin effect in speaker cables where we need thicker wires (I'm not sure why). One is to use copper tape (often seen in crossover's inductors) but this is often not very practical. Another is to split thick wire into whole bunch of thinner wires. They have to be isolated otherwise current will jump from strand to strand (trying to get outside where resistance is lower because of skin effect) trough impurities. It improves things but wires are still in each other's magnetic field and only surface increased. Remedy for that is to use helical pattern of wire on outside of thick hollow core so that each wire is only in magnetic field of two neighboring wires. Now if you add to this issue of inductance of the wire and purity of the metal things are getting really complicated because not only absolute inductance and capacitance are important but also ratio of them. Poor IC cable might have 25pF/0.5uH per foot while great one might reach 2.5pF/0.05uH. Metal purity and type plays role. Silver cables are very fast snappy sound but copper - even few percent adds dimensionality and reduces brightness. Amount of crystals and impurities between them is also a factor (copper oxide is a semiconductor). Things are way more complicated. I could hear improvement in clarity but have to admit that I bought top of the line IC only because it was cheap (relatively) used. If it is placebo effect - great.

Sorry for this BS in previous post - I didn't mean it. I probably already feel guilty for not helping. My stepfather who is elderly distinguished professor of law was spending his free time in Salvation Army stores to buy as much as possible (to stretch his dollar) sending hundreds of parcels to poor families abroad. When I think of it I feel guilty every-time I spend money (not only for expensive cables).

Kijanki........ Wow......... You know your stuff. I don't know anything about cable science. I just know by experience what works, and what doesn't. My stand on insulation is not total. I am open to anything that will prove me wrong. It has to make sense, that's all. Foamed Teflon has piqued my interest, and cotton too. I am not satisfied with the interconnect I am using. I will be making my own. Mylar is not on my shelf.

You rhetorically asked if skin effect in solid wire is audible. If you allow me to answer, yes, very much so on my system.

I hope you don't think I am arguing with you. From what I read, we agree on points of common experience. I had the pleasure of listening to Shunyata SCs in comparison with solid wire. The Shunyata brought frequency extremes in focus. The solid wire held superior in the mids to my ears.

This paradox troubled me no end. It taught me cable science is more complicated than I wanted to believe. That is of what you wrote on your post.

One thing was for sure. I am happy to have mono amps. That allows me to keep my SCs very short - 18". That way, inductance, and capacitance are kept to an inaudible minimum.

Muralman - I said I'm not sure why we need thick speaker wires. My Acoustic Zen Satori Shotguns have gauge 7 each (about 1" dia.) and I think it is overkill but I trust AZ designer Robert Lee and bought the cable. The reason for doubt is simple - why do we need very thick wire or huge damping factor if inductor in series with the woofer has about 0.1 Ohm? Inductance of the wire improves but very little so why to go to such thick wires?

I read on the DIY forum about good results with cotton ,that you mentioned, as a dielectric. Making it pretty is secondary issue but obtaining high quality copper or silver wire is difficult.

I re trimmed my Satoris with new spades and discovered that wire has inside isolated strands (9 I think) + 1 strand that is not solid but has inside again 9 very small strands. More complicated than I expected.

I understand that making cables in small quantities and exotic technologies (zero crystals - means cooling metal very slowly in hot forms so that crystals can not form) but price of some excellent wires (like Stealth Indra) are reaching price of a small car. When I hear no comments from my non-audiophile friends it means they think I'm crazy. For them spending more than $100 on an amp or $500 on speakers is a sin (or madness).