What makes the biggest difference in sound quality?

I must not have good ears, because homemade interconnects seem to as good or better than most of the store bought ones I have tried.

there could be an open forum for say, car guys. You could have a group of these car guys talking about how they reduced their best lap times by seconds while outlining exactly what they did to their vehicles to lower their best lap times. Another group of car guys come along to tell the first group they are all nuts and that none of their tuning tips work, some even claim to have tried their tips and that none of them lowered their lap times. The reality is, both of these camps could be correct. The problem is perspective and details. The drivers reducing their lap times could be Porsche and Ferrari pilots while the second group could be Miata drivers. Knowing the details of an audio system is extremely important to put anyone’s perspective in perspective.

As to cable length, shorter is almost always better to a point, but if you must have long cables, make them your interconnects and not your speaker cables.

thanks much for your reply, ted : ) - kevin

@millercarbon 12 gauge mundorf copper foil, is 27 dollars for 10 meters. hificollective.co.uk

Make it yourself :)Cotton or silk sheathing is also available in bulk, very easy to use, or you can make your own. 

I have about $20K invested into my speaker system, and have tried all sorts of cables, every kind of construction imaginable. Simple unshielded copper foil (as XLRs and USB sound the best. Amazing clarity, timbre and dynamics. Soundstage is MASSIVE. I have also tried Silver/Gold foil, but copper was the best match for my system.

These cables are simple to make, and can compete with pretty much anything else on the market, it’s not a boast, or false bravado, it is a simple truth that I discovered after doing the hard work for myself. 

My opinion it’s all about lowering the noise floor so small things in a recording are more noticeable; when this is done all things will be clearer and less fatiguing. Music will be enjoyable at lower levers as well. In my experience it starts with the cleanest power to feed the components, such as dedicated circuits, receptacles with good contact, then the power cords. I use two different power devices in my system where all things excluding my amp go through a PS Audio P10 and amp goes through a Nordost on its own circuit; both units on their own dedicated circuit. If this isn’t done first then you’re just chasing your tail which I’ve done my share of in this hobby, including trading out components that probably didn’t need to go.

Next I will say it’s room treatment or maybe that should have been first. Between Interconnects and Speaker Cables I start with IC’s and run balance where I can. Depending on the components some cables have more shield than others, (same on power cables) as I’m trying to reduce noise EM/RFI to again drop the noise floor.

Next I would move to speaker cables, and that’s to wrap up the cables and move on to isolation of components and the rack holding my gear to once again, lower the noise floor. Also don’t forget to keep the cables tidy keeping them away from each other if possible. I keep my rack off the wall a bit so my power cables don’t get too close to the IC’s.

Lastly I do use boutique fuses and I do recommend them but I believe for many if their system is not revealing, having a low noise floor, then hearing what they do might not be as transparent. Except for two components I recently picked up I use aftermarket fuses. In every component I have added them it has been an improvement, but not where I would start. Just my opinion.

Fuses.