Speaker cables - cables make a difference

@lanx0003 - It's common experiences with cables that give me confidence that there's more to it than expectation bias and placebo even though I know that they are also always an unavoidable factor.

My original perspective with speaker cables after doing a lot of reading was that the primary factor that resulted in audible differences was the AWG which led me to go with the 10 AWG BJC cables that are overkill for my length of cables.  I believe 10AWG is what Imax uses for their sound systems that have really long runs.  I have an intermediate switch in my speaker cables (receiver and integrated share my speakers) which is an automatic sub optimization and doubles the cost of any cable purchases.  As a result I I stayed with the BJC cables for a long time until I came across the favorable reviews for the Mecca 14 that were easily obtained and reasonably priced for two sets.  I didn't like them, but hearing the difference fed my curiosity.  Early in my audiophile journey I made some DIY speaker cables from multiple runs of CAT5 cable with the goal of a large aggregate AWG from multiple small solid conductors.  At the time it didn't seem to make any difference and they were a bulky mess so the 10 AWG BJC became a better solution for me.  In retrospect, I think the inability to hear a difference was likely more related to the capability of my AVR than anything else.  The more research I did the more I felt like there is something to smaller conductors, so I eventually purchased Morrow Audio SP4 speaker cables on a Black Friday sale and have really enjoyed the result.  They added detail to the sound but in a natural way.  My damping factor did drop significantly and I would say that the bass became a little less clean as a result, but not anything that would be objectionable.  

@mceljo  I’m not sure I like smaller-gauge conductors speaker cable at that price tag, mainly because their higher resistance reduces the amplifier’s damping factor, which could potentially result in less controlled or fuzzier bass.  While reduced skin effect may be an advantage of smaller conductors, the skin effect itself is essentially negligible in the audio band for typical 10–12 AWG speaker cables.

Frankly, when I saw how popular Morrow speaker cables are on this forum, along with their generous 60-day trial period, I was tempted. I was considering the SP4, but when I realized that a $440 pair uses only 13 AWG conductors, I hesitated. The Micca 14 uses an even smaller conductor, but it costs less than $30 per pair.

On my 2nd rig with Micca 14 the bass does not sound thin / soft after the Veritas Angentum xlr was put in. (I realized the previous thinner bass is from WBC)  So, I think I’m set for now. Toward the end of the year, I may pick up / try a pair of Veritas Aperta speaker cables when it is on sale.

@buellrider97 

+1

...and YES YES on the digital cable.  I am still a novice in the cable game, other than the S/PDIF cable going from my various streamers to DACs over the past 5 years.  It has been truly remarkable the importance of that cable.  Paul McGowan talked about this in one of his videos where they were at Axpona one year and the system was total crap.  He called his Audioquest guy who was on his way and brought a much better cable and swapped them out and everyone's draws dropped in the room.  I had Transparent Ultra G5 and went to Shunyata Alpha 1 on my speaker cables and the music got so much more lively and dynamic.  I suppose the Transparent filters were restricting too much??  Interconnects I simply got some Transparent and have left them alone as I have very long runs to my amps to not easy to try anything else.  Power cables are next.  I have not ever had anything more than a $75 Pangea.

@cdtd 

Glad they worked out and it is very cool that it was one of your personal projects

@dhite71 Just use USB. S/PDIF has effectively analog without error correction or lost packed retransmission. No one connects external hard drive over S/PDIF.