Best way to buy speaker cables and to evaluate them

@ghdprentice   while these words come from review, but they are similar to many ads.

Right from the start, what was most apparent was how fast the Fidelium cable sounded. There was so much more detail, openness, and musical information that it was almost an assault on the senses, but in a very audibly pleasing way. The Fidelium produced tonal colors that were vibrant and energetic. With the Fidelium, instrumentals and vocals were delivered with a considerable amount of presence, realism, and believability. Upper frequencies were provided with an increased amount of airiness and clarity. Percussion kits possessed newly discovered bits of information, and sounds, previously hard to identify, were now easier to follow. There are still items on percussion kits that I have no idea of what they are called, but with the Fidelium I can easily tell what they sound like. 

Well, I bought a pair of these cables, waiting for the magic, but once again I heard no improvement in my systems sound.  In correspondence with the owner of Silversmith, he asked what cables I was currently using.  When I told him I had a pair of XLO Signature 5.1 cables, his response was "yeah, I wouldn't expect to hear much difference between those cables"  so the Fidelium cables went back.  

Over the years, I have had a very good experience using the Lending Library at the Cable Company. I have found it critical to be able to compare several specific cables at the same time in my own system. For me, paying the shipping costs for the demo cables has been a worthwhile investment to make sure I buy a cable that I really like. (The 5% charges based on a cable's retail cost are a non-issue as long as you are committed to buying cables from the Cable Company at the end of your trial since those charges can be applied to any purchase from them at any time.) Also, the Frequent Flyer discount offered on many brands can reduce your retail cost by 11.5%.

My most recent purchase from the Cable Company was a power cable for my preamp, where I compared several cables from Cardas, Shunyata, and Snake River Audio. I have used mostly Cardas products as my analog signal cables and mostly Shunyata products for power cables, and I had hoped to use the Shunyata Theta power cable for my preamp to complement the Thetas used for my monoblock amps. Instead, after careful listening, the more expensive Shunyata Alpha-X sounded best in my preamp, offering more realistic tone and body than the other power cables. If I hadn't tried all these cables in my own system, I would never have known how great my system could sound.

Op you have a very nice system.You really don’t know what improvement you get in your system until you connect the cables but I would add Black diamond Tellurium.

Parkerdean you are welcome here

The Cable Company is a low risk option with good products and fair prices. Especially since the 5% is credited toward your eventual purchase.  The issue here may be that you are not really committed to a purchase.  At least not until somebody proves to you that cables make a difference.  The difference you will require to justify a purchase in the thousands may have to be so great as to be unattainable.  Cables, unlike say speakers, are about fine tuning the sound.

Speaker cables will be where you find the greatest change or improvement but it is still usually subtle.  My Wireworld Platinum solid silver cables were expensive but made a nice difference for me versus the Nordost Valhalla which in my system were too bright and killed some of the lower bass richness.  

Your research is an investment you will want to make or not. As you've read from these comments, there are no cheap alternatives to high quality results.  A small increase in sound quality is worth a good deal to me... but not necessarily to others.

Good luck and enjoy the process.