What's the last word on audio cable?

[simplywyn]

I have cables I bought from amazon, I have $250+ self made cables with the stupid crisscrossing from that guy on youtube, and I have $200+ cables that allow biamping (bi-cabling? who knows) from aliexpress.

Do cables matter at all? Should I just stick with my $50 / 50ft spool of Amazon cables (I think they are 12AWG)

I swear I can hear a difference but I can also see that difference in my face, so I don't trust myself.

 

[fpitas]

I have cables I bought from amazon, I have $250+ self made cables with the stupid crisscrossing from that guy on youtube, and I have $200+ cables that allow biamping (bi-cabling) from aliexpress.

Do cables matter at all? Should I just stick with my $50 / 50ft spool of Amazon cables (I think they are 12AWG)

I swear I can hear a difference but I can also see that difference in my face, so I don't trust myself.

Amir might test your cables if you ask him nicely. But I'll guess they don't make a difference, as long as they're thick enough gauge.

 

[ahofer]

It's very unlikely they make a difference. Have someone swap them around while you are blind to the changes. See if you can pick out one from the other. If you can, definitely have them tested.

 

[simplywyn]

Amir might test your cables if you ask him nicely. But I'll guess they don't make a difference, as long as they're thick enough gauge.

@amirm - I can ship you all three cables if you want to do a test on them!

Cable 1:

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005003412698862.html

Cable 2 - Self made but very similar to these:

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32833076090.html

Cable 3 - Amazon 100ft:

https://www.amazon.ca/AmazonBasics-16-Gauge-Speaker-Wire-Feet/dp/B006LW0W5Y/

Also for my subwoofers:

Cable 1:

https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B008UGPBXM

Cable 2: super basic RCA cables I've had for 30 years.

 

[bkatbamna]

Since you're in Canada, they are cryogenic cables by default.

 

[radix]

@amirm - I can ship you all three cables if you want to do a test on them!

Cable 1:

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005003412698862.html

Cable 2 - Self made but very similar to these:

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32833076090.html

Cable 3 - Amazon 100ft:

https://www.amazon.ca/AmazonBasics-16-Gauge-Speaker-Wire-Feet/dp/B006LW0W5Y/

Also for my subwoofers:

Cable 1:

https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B008UGPBXM

Cable 2: super basic RCA cables I've had for 30 years.

I see you have 16 gauge speaker wire. I don't know how much power or what length cable you use, but I usually go for 12 or 10 gauge if I know it's a long run (say 30+ feet/10+ meters). I think those numbers came from some speaker's recommendations (maybe the Revel F228?). I usually get OFC cable, just because, but I doubt that makes much difference unless the wire corrodes after a very long time. I usually use Amazon speaker cable, or something similarly priced.

At times I've used 14/4 or 12/4 cable and doubled it up instead of using 12 or 10 (respectively). I don't think that makes much difference and wouldn't bother with it again.

As long as your RCA cables are properly shielded, I bet they are OK.

 

[Capitol C]

The last word: Cheap.

 

[xaviescacs]

Good terminations, flexibility,...

 

[DSJR]

I worry about fancy-foo woven types. Some of them add capacitance and the worst ones blow up some amps which aren't bombproof by default.

 

[ribosradagast]

I see you have 16 gauge speaker wire. I don't know how much power or what length cable you use, but I usually go for 12 or 10 gauge if I know it's a long run (say 30+ feet/10+ meters). I think those numbers came from some speaker's recommendations (maybe the Revel F228?).

Interestingly, the numbers from different manufacturers also vary wildly. For a 50-foot length, Klipsch recommends 16 or 14-gauge:

https://support.klipsch.com/hc/en-us/articles/360058336451-What-Gauge-Wire-Should-I-Use-

whereas the F228 mentioned seems to say 8-gauge in their manual:

 

[Mnyb]

It never seems to be any last words cable treads are like a hydra , they pop up all over the forum even if the subject is truly flogged into the ground by now ?

If you “hear” differences assume experimental error as the first and most likely explanation for everything.

 

[Beave]

Cables obviously matter a lot. They all have different material composition, filament density and number, layers, termination, solder, shielding, etc. Whether you can hear a difference and whether the difference you hear is enough to justify the cost in your opinion is an entirely separate and entirely personal issue that only you can resolve.

My advice would be to pick the ones you can afford where you seem to enjoy the music most.

Ignore anyone who says you can't hear differences. Just the way some people wear glasses and some don't, we all have different hearing. And what matters is what you hear, not what anyone else says.

You must be new here.

 

[kongwee]

If you already bought both cables, you don't need to hypnotised yourself. That $50 dollar difference is not a concern for me. $200 and $250 are the same price cat. They don't outdone each other. You can keep changing nth time. I once had 3 pair of cable and took many hours to settle on one. I move my speaker along changing the cables.

 

[Music1969]

The last word is - buy cheapest cables made of/to appropriate specification.

 

[VintageFlanker]

@simplywyn
First, you don't buy expensive cables on AliExpress. These are both fake Furutech and fake OCC copper.

Cables obviously matter a lot.

Obviously, not that much.

They all have different material composition, filament density and number, layers, termination, solder, shielding, etc.

Sure. Literally everybody is aware of it... This doesn't imply that these factors actually may change the sound at all.

Whether you can hear a difference and whether the difference you hear is enough to justify the cost in your opinion is an entirely separate and entirely personal issue that only you can resolve.

No, just no. First, we have to prove that the audible difference even exists to begin with. Since we already know how a cable may or may not change the sound, with both measurements or controled listening, this is not about "personal preference" by any means, but actual facts.

My advice would be to pick the ones you can afford where you seem to enjoy the music most.

What a terrible advice. ASR is not a place to promote snake oil tweaks with this kind of remarks...

 

[Waxx]

As long as it's good copper (not cca) with good in the right gauge and quality connectors, it does not matter. Silver also works and the sound difference is so small it does not matter, only the price is higher. And all the rest is snake oil bullshit. This is basic electronic 101! And for power cables CCA is not bad, but real copper is better because the resistance is lower for pure copper cables.

And at the end, even cca is not a disaster, it's just like thinner copper cable, because of the higher inner resistance. But it will also pass the signal and not act like an eq. It's just that you speakers will see a slightly higher output resistance of the amp that can affect the sound very minimal. So if you have cca cables, don't worry to much about it. Just buy pure copper cables next time (and no, they don't cost that much)

 

[xaviescacs]

Cables obviously matter a lot. They all have different material composition, filament density and number, layers, termination, solder, shielding, etc. Whether you can hear a difference and whether the difference you hear is enough to justify the cost in your opinion is an entirely separate and entirely personal issue that only you can resolve.

My advice would be to pick the ones you can afford where you seem to enjoy the music most.

Ignore anyone who says you can't hear differences. Just the way some people wear glasses and some don't, we all have different hearing. And what matters is what you hear, not what anyone else says.

@simplywyn, my advice is, don't listen to people who tells you that you can hear something others can't and measurements and common sense don't support.

We all hear differences from run to run, with or without changing cables.

 

[fpitas]

Cables obviously matter. Everything the signal passes through matters. It's just basic physics. Cables all have different material composition, filament density and number, layers, termination, solder, shielding, etc. Whether you can hear a difference and whether the difference you hear is enough to justify the cost in your opinion is an entirely separate and entirely personal issue that only you can resolve.

My advice would be to pick the ones you can afford where you seem to enjoy the music most.

Ignore anyone who says you can't hear differences. Just the way some people wear glasses and some don't, we all have different hearing. And what matters is what you hear, not what anyone else says.

Oddly, all the amazing differences run for the hills during blind testing. And nobody can measure anything of note, either. There are whole threads here filled with weird tosh about "things we can't measure".

 

[AnalogSteph]

And at the end, even cca is not a disaster, it's just like thinner copper cable, because of the higher inner resistance.

It does have a certain tendency towards breaking / becoming intermittent though.

It's funny how 25-30 years ago, using CCAW voicecoils in headphone drivers was considered a premium feature - mind you, it does make sense in this context, with Al being not that much worse in conductivity but substantially less dense, so you can reduce moving mass like that.

 

[ahofer]

Cables obviously matter. Everything the signal passes through matters. It's just basic physics. Cables all have different material composition, filament density and number, layers, termination, solder, shielding, etc. Whether you can hear a difference and whether the difference you hear is enough to justify the cost in your opinion is an entirely separate and entirely personal issue that only you can resolve.

My advice would be to pick the ones you can afford where you seem to enjoy the music most.

Ignore anyone who says you can't hear differences. Just the way some people wear glasses and some don't, we all have different hearing. And what matters is what you hear, not what anyone else says.

This is terrible advice. Ignore anyone selling unsupported bunkum.