Sum Total Cost Of All Cables In Your Rig?

@squared80 “…the best speaker cable you can possibly buy: plain old 12AWG OFC”

I agree 100% with solid core being a good budget choice.

“What Hi-Fi” magazine in the UK during the 1980s started the debate with solid core copper cables. They claimed it could be the most cost effective improvement for speaker wire, and the simplest of upgrades.

l certainly found mains solid core copper 24AWG made remarkable difference’s with my Celestion 25 floor standers, and later Mission Freedom 770’s bass responses.

I’m not going to play along on the cost discussion. I’ve read through the posts which confirms some believe they have a full enough understanding of the science to sidestep employing costly wire in their system. Fair enough. I concluded differently.

I’m a retired finance person but like to think of myself as scientifically curious. More importantly, I am curious enough to understand that I don’t know what I don’t know. So I read. And I listen. And sometimes I buy when I think it merits the spend. 

I found the following article interesting and germaine to the discussion. Perhaps some of you will as well. https://positive-feedback.com/audio-discourse/cables-always-sound/

Some of you may argue otherwise, or argue that diminishing returns are at play. Again - fair enough. But it seems to me a rational essay on why a listen is worthwhile and that not all “cable designers” are snake oil salespeople. 

@mgrif104 

"I’m not going to play along on the cost discussion. I’ve read through the posts which confirms some believe they have a full enough understanding of the science to sidestep employing costly wire in their system. Fair enough. I concluded differently.

I’m a retired finance person but like to think of myself as scientifically curious. More importantly, I am curious enough to understand that I don’t know what I don’t know. So I read. And I listen. And sometimes I buy when I think it merits the spend. 

I found the following article interesting and germaine to the discussion. Perhaps some of you will as well. https://positive-feedback.com/audio-discourse/cables-always-sound/

Some of you may argue otherwise, or argue that diminishing returns are at play. Again - fair enough. But it seems to me a rational essay on why a listen is worthwhile and that not all “cable designers” are snake oil salespeople." 

Seems like you're convinced but. Skoff’s background is in economics, I can’t find where he was schooled in his bio. CWMA is a marketing organization (hmm?) and AAHEA is faith based. His research in the subject is as a hobbyist as is ours. Read between the lines!

@faustuss 

I did not link the article believing it to be an authoritative dissertation but to foster in those skeptics at least some curiosity by lending support to the idea that cables can sound different. 

No - I did not read his background. I read the article. And I found it to be rational as what he references are all things that can be supported in theory and measured in practice. The debate is not whether these things exist but whether they are audible. 

As you didn’t dispute anything he wrote, why dispute his background? If your standard requires that someone be properly degreed, then there are additional questions which must be posed. Degreed in what? Electrical engineering? Physics? Materials Science? And what school will be acceptable to you? And what about those who are gifted but choose not to finish their schooling? 

It’s fine to be a skeptic. Indeed, I used to be one. For years, I held the strong belief that power cables mattered not at all.  I ultimately had to come to a different conclusion. Heck - I heard a difference and still struggle with it conceptually as they’re no where near as obvious as speaker cables, but affect a sonic change nonetheless. 

@mgrif104 

"I did not link the article believing it to be an authoritative dissertation but to foster in those skeptics at least some curiosity by lending support to the idea that cables can sound different. 

No - I did not read his background. I read the article. And I found it to be rational as what he references are all things that can be supported in theory and measured in practice. The debate is not whether these things exist but whether they are audible. 

As you didn’t dispute anything he wrote, why dispute his background? If your standard requires that someone be properly degreed, then there are additional questions which must be posed. Degreed in what? Electrical engineering? Physics? Materials Science? And what school will be acceptable to you? And what about those who are gifted but choose not to finish their schooling? 

It’s fine to be a skeptic. Indeed, I used to be one. For years, I held the strong belief that power cables mattered not at all.  I ultimately had to come to a different conclusion. Heck - I heard a difference and still struggle with it conceptually as they’re no where near as obvious as speaker cables, but affect a sonic change nonetheless." 

Seems you'll throw anything at the wall and see if it sticks.

Now, was it ketchup or spaghetti? Or maybe a Big Mac with ketchup on it?