Are current audio cable designs superior to 1980s designs?

hickamore,

There’s dozens of controlled blind listening tests out there that answer this question beyond any doubt.

The fact you’re using the same cables since 1987 also must have some relevance to your question.

So why does it need to be asked again? And again? And again? And again?

What is it that you might expect ’improved’ cables to do?

Ask yourself why is it that after 50 years of alleged (advertised as, alluded to, supposed, suggested etc) continuous ’improvements’ that wire from decades ago remains indistinguishable from wire today?

It’s been well known for over a century that standard copper is one of the very best conductor materials available. High purity OFC copper could be deemed as overkill, but as it is reasonably affordable, shouldn’t we all be recommending it?

I’ve have over 30 years of experience of trying different cables and believe high purity OFC copper is all that I, or anyone else should ever need. Give or take the odd shielding issue depending upon the amplifier.

Yes, some exotic cables with odd resistance, capacitance, and inductance values may well sound different, but is that what anyone is really looking for?

I doubt it, and can only imagine what amplifier designers would say. In fact that’s not a bad idea, is it?

Simply ask the designer of your amplifier.

Providing they’re not selling their own $$ cables of course. As I learned the hard way with my experiences of Linn and Naim cabling.

Silver content in connectors (AudioQuest), control of directionality, cryogenics, polishing of conductor surfaces, cable cookers/burn in tracks, long grain copper, air dielectric, contact enhancers, suspension/elevating of cables. Most of those concepts are post 1980s.

As long as your connectors or wire isn't starting to oxidize they're fine. If you think you need new speaker wire use something like canare 4s11, for interconnects monoprice has some good ones. 

YES!!!

You asked a generic question, followed by several more focused questions related to your specific cables.  To your generic question; it depends on your definition of “superior.”  Connectors have improved so superior in that way, yes. Otherwise, if you mean sonically and audibly, then probably yes also but maybe not in the multitude of ways or to the magnitude that cable manufacturers would have you believe.  With power transmission (i.e., power cords and speaker cables), wire gauge seems to be the main factor with maybe some audible effects between solid core vs. stranded wire.  With small signal cables, wire gauge, geometry and shielding seem to be key factors, but you don’t need to pay a lot to get those benefits.  Many believe relatively pedestrian Mogami balanced cables sound just fine.Other stuff such as copper purity (beyond OFC), cryogenic treatment, wire direction, exotic wire shapes, exotic dielectrics, etc. seem to be audible to some but not all.  Even if you hear differences, are those differences significant, are they really improvements, and are they worth the many thousands of dollars cable manufacturers have charged over the years?  You need to listen and decide for yourself.  I went down that road for awhile, wasted a bunch of time and money I will never get back, and decided I would rather enjoy the music than worry about cables.