Better to use cheaper thicker speaker wire or better thinner wire?

I have used a single untwisted pair of cat5 and was astounded.

Very thin wire is superb with flea powered amps and efficient speakers.


Art
 
Use the appropriate gauge for the signal level and length.

After this it is all in the material types for conductors and dialectics, also how it is constructed, and this varies a lot (connectors are also a consideration for many of us).

Bottom line is find what works best for you regardless of whether it is $1 a meter or $10 a meter.

In my opinion and experience.
 
The real way to great sound from wires? Use the Swedish blond virgin nymphos as the wire supports to elevate the cables off the floor. Have one lie naked on the floor every couple of feet, and drape the wire across their torsos so it doesn't touch the ground at any point. You know, just the way Japanese sushi gets served on a girl's naked stomach in some of those exclusive clubs. You could experiment with different configurations, of course, such as spread-eagled and holding the wires clamped between their toes.

In all honesty, I have never noticed even the slightest sonic degradation under such conditions. :D


Seriously, the obvious answer has already been given in this thread a few times. Try one wire, then try the other one, and then try them both together. The best way to do this would be to let a friend make the swaps in a way that you can't see which wire or wires are connected. Let your ears decide for you. Swap back and forth a few times, and then if you hear a consistent difference, choose the best one. If there is no difference, then it won't matter which you use.

Diameter really matters only when it is too small. Extra diameter is good, but the difference isn't always audible.

I did an experiment once using elevator power cables as speaker wires. The individual copper strands were over 1/8" thick, and the whole stranded cable (just the metal part, without insulation!) was around 1-1/2" thick. Of course, the ends had to be trimmed down with a jerry-rigged connector just to be able to attach the cable at all. Its diameter completely dwarfed the entire connector(s). Honestly, the sound was miraculously transformed, as if the angels themselves had descended from heaven to sing through my speakers --in my dreams. In the real world, the difference between those ship-sized cables and my normal ones was minimal, if there was any at all. It was a wee bit disappointing. Thought I might start a DIY trend, but alas... :D

[Note: if you are one of those people whose ego is tied up in the size of your cables, look for elevator motor cables - I guarantee you'll have the biggest audio cables on your block. Probably in your entire State! Oh, be prepared for some seriously heavy metal-bending work to get them to line up, too. At that thickness, they're almost impossible to bend very sharply!]
 
So the moral of the story is - check the 'bend radius' of something very thick, because you might not even get it in your listening room :D
 
I have used a single untwisted pair of cat5 and was astounded.

Very thin wire is superb with flea powered amps and efficient speakers.


Art

Yes, works really well in my system too.

Sure, a few SET watts and high-efficiency speakers is a different mix than most people use but I prefer short runs of thin solid-core copper wire - cheap and sounds great.

This would just be my opinion in my system though - no universal truth here and I get that we have different tastes in systems Bot so won't see eye-to-eye on this topic either. :)
 
If I didn't have to have my speakers so far from the amp I'd have tried some pure silver wire.
 
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