When I started this thread I fully expected it to be a subject with a wide range of opinions. It seems, though, that most listeners agree that interconnect and speaker wire choice make a noticeable difference but, and this is what amazes me, there doesn't seem to be much in the way of even general agreement about a wire/cable that is, at least, a good starting point in this quest.
My experience with speaker wire began about 55 yrs ago with a self built Heathkit monaural amp, a cheap turntable and an also self built "Sweet 16" speaker enclosure. At that time the effect that speaker cable had in a system never even crossed my mind, nor, to my memory, was it even a subject of discussion in the magazines of that period.
I think that maybe what's happened is that, in general, improvements in all components have progressed over the years to the extent that many feel that, within our respective budgets, we have put together systems that we assumed are the best for the money and that we should be happy with. After having dedicated a significant portion of our budget to these more expensive components, then, we turn our attention to other parts of the system to "fine tune" it to our tastes. It seems that this tuning boils down mostly to IC's and cables.
Here's what bothers me about that; in following a signal from source to speaker there are so many significant interactions between various components in the chain, including conductors, that choosing to concentrate on only one of these at a time one would have to assume that each of the other by itself or working together with other components is as good as it can be. That can't be the case so it's like exceeding the allowable number of significant digits in the outcome of a mathematical equation.
One of the responders asked if anyone has calculated what the number of permutations and combinations was for the various component choices in a system. This, of course, would only be mathematically possible if one knew exactly what was available to put into a given system and that is unknowable but probably in the billions.
I'm rambling but my point is that music listening is so subjective in the first place that there can't be one or even several wire choices that are superior to all others. This is especially true for someone like me who, apparently, does not have a sufficiently trained ear to recognize subtle differences. As an example, I have a Sony jukebox and a Shanling single CD player, both playing through the same Rogue Audio amp, and there are certain music selections that I actually like better if played on the jukebox.
As I said before, these comments are not meant to argue that speaker wire choice is a frivolous quest; it's just that the process has so many factors to consider and so complicated for me that I'm accepting the assumption that the wires that I use are not the most or even an important factor in my system.
