Cable bomb question

[mrkiko]

Hi everyone,

For simplicity, please allow me to group in this thread speaker cables in 4 categories:

Cat. 1: Bad speaker cables. Price below one dollar per metre
Cat. 2: Speaker cables. Price around $2/m
Cat. 3: Good speaker cables. Bi-wire, possibly silver, price around $20/m
Cat. 4: Expensive speaker cables. Whatever over $30/m

And now the please find my question, with 3 possible answers:

If the total of the "perfect sound" is 1000, wich is the relevance of "Cat 3", Good speaker cables:

Answer 1: Good cables are 2, the rest of the system makes the remaining 998
Answer 2: Good cables are 20, and the rest is 980
Answer 3: Good cables has more than 2% of the total

:Z

[Kevin P]

I'm not quite sure I understand the question, but after re-reading a few times I think what you're asking is "how important is speaker wire for the overall sound of your system relative to everything else (amps, speakers, sources, etc.)?

I would say somewhere between 2 and 3. The quality of your speaker wire will make an impact, but a subtle one. You'll see a bigger difference in your sound by upgrading speakers, amps, or your source components than by replacing the speaker wire (except maybe in extreme cases, where you're upgrading from doorbell wire to expensive bi-wired silver for your mains and the rest of your equipment is top notch).

In any case, if you're trying to squeak the last ounce of performance out of an already top notch setup, yes, going to better speaker wires will make a noticeable difference. If you have a home theater in a box and are going to bi-wire with silver wire, you're not likely to see much of an improvement (as your weakest link will be elsewhere).

Also, IMHO, the quality of the wire for the mains and center are more important than for the surrounds.

Just a reminder, keep brand names out of this discussion to keep within HTGuide rules.