Speaker cable upgrade please help........

I am located in the metro Detroit area. Thanks for the ideas. I will be sure to keep this information in mind.

I'm curious as to why you suspect your cables. If you're happy with your
system, I wouldn't upgrade anything. But, if you're unhappy with your
system, I think it is a real leap to automatically suspect your cables of
"cheating" you of performance the rest of your system is
"trying" to give you. How do you know it isn't your speakers?
Speakers have a far more complicated, far more difficult job to do than any
speaker cable. A cable only has to carry signal, a speaker has to try to
recreate musical instruments -- yet you say you're committed to your
speakers, will never change them, but are ready to change your cables. How
about room treatments? The room itself is likely adding measurable
distortion. Do you have distortion measurements on your cables? Any other
measurements? What, specifically, do you expect to solve with new cables?
Any hard evidence that your cables are causing any problems? Someone said
that the more you spend on your system, the more cables make a difference,
but that sounds more like the repetition of a sales pitch to me. In my
encounters with owners of mega-buck [$100,000+] systems, the common
theme seems to be that even in such systems the differences between cables
is extremely subtle. I'd be willing to bet that the same amount of money
spent on an hour or two with an acoustical consultant and some changes in
your room, speaker placement, etc. would give you ten times the bang for
your buck as changing speaker cables or interconnects. Upon solving an
acoustical problem, I've never heard anyone say that the difference was
subtle. Finally, on what information will you base your buying decision?
Impedence matching? Do you want cables with high capacitance or
inductance? Low? Based on what others recommend? Price?

Just offering another perspective.

Try some of Paul Speltz' Anti-Cables. They run $10 per foot, per pair, terminated with spades. That is, a 10-ft pair will cost you $100.

Rsbeck, you must like pushing on a rope. :) Do you realize where you are? You're trying to make a sound, objective argument in a forum where people *want* to believe there are easily audible differences between two speaker cables.

Nicksgem10s, you should listen to Rsbeck anyway.

Regarding actual product, try www.bluejeanscable.com. These guys are just using Belden and Canare wire with decent quality terminations at reasonable prices. Their service is pretty good too. Of course, I like 10ga zip cord with WBT spades and bananas, but that's a do-it-yourself project, and the WBTs just look and feel nice.

There are, incidentally, measurable differences between cables, but almost nothing will be measurably or audibly better than 10ga zip cord. Silver is about 5% more conductive than copper. 5%. And there's no measurable difference between a silver conductor and a copper one that's 105% of the size of the silver one. Well, at least not at audio frequencies. (A smaller conductor will have less skin effect in the MHz range, but compared to MHz audio is like DC.) Resistance, capacitance, inductance. That's all there is. No one can reasonably explain why two conductors with similar specifications will sound different. There's just the assertion that they do. Would you spend $280/ft on an unsupported assertion? Not me. And as Rsbeck implies, cables don't have complex side-effects that active electronics do, like intermodulation distortion, even and odd harmonic distortions, or added noise, or the myriad of other things active circuits have to worry about. Since our ears & brains can be so easily and provably fooled, why would anyone believe someone's assertion that are differences that can't be measured or explained?

Nick, I think I read the same review you read. (Absolut Sound review on Home Depot cables 14-gauge powercord extension - you get rid of the plug and insert decent bananas - this are made of pure copper). I haven't tried but this weekend I am going to buy the cable and I will try it next week. I heard copper gives you warmer sound, whereas silver is brighter. I just bought a pair of Triangle Antal XS so I think I will go for copper.

I wonder if you can do the same thing with the interconnects. Any idea anyone?