Are speaker cables really important

[admin_exported]

Ok I recently upgraded from an old aiwa hifi to a denon d38 and wharfadale 9.1s, and some cheap speaker cable ( http://www.richersounds.com/product/speaker-cables/cambridge-audio/symphony-200/gale-symphony-200), would a more expensive cable say £3.00 a meter make a difference?.

Also leave the grills on or off?

 

[Craig M.]

i would say no to the cable, and i always preferred the 9.1s with grills off but really it's whatever you prefer.

 

[Anonymous]

You mean I wouldnt see any difference with 'better' cables?.

 

[Craig M.]

i really doubt it. even if different cables could make a difference, you'd get a much bigger change just by moving the position of your speakers a little bit.

 

[CnoEvil]

This is one that you are going to have to try for yourself.... after we've all argued about it until the thread is locked. 🙁

Spend no more than 10% of the value of your kit, but try before you buy.

 

[Anonymous]

Personally i think cable can make alot of difference, but at the lower price range you could always try listeing to 3 core electric cable ( obviously only using 2 wires) you might be surprised at how good it can sound. As for grills... always off. What can a grill do except muffle your speakers?

 

[6th.replicant]

Changing from Chord silver/copper cable to a 6mm all-copper cable made a heeeeoooooge difference to my setup in terms of balanced, neutral sound.

And the copper cable was less than half the price of the Chord stuff 😉

 

[aliEnRIK]

Try some 4mm Van Damme UP LC-OFC speaker cable

Far better than many cables costing a lot more

 

[Singslinger]

Yes I think cables make a difference, but only up to a point. Spending 10k on cables for a 1k system is obviously silly but I think paying 1k for cables in a 10k system is fine.

Then again, Naim recommends using their NAC A5 cable for ALL their systems, even their high-end ones costing in excess of 10k.

But Naim aside, I'd say yes, cables do matter but you'll have to experiment to see if the marginal improvement in worth the extra cost.

 

[Anonymous]

This is one that you are going to have to try for yourself.... after we've all argued about it until the thread is locked. 🙁 Spend no more than 10% of the value of your kit, but try before you buy.

I query this. 1% of the value of your equipment should be fine. The 10% figure is purely random, though it does help both dealers and manufacturers.

 

[Alec]

Yeah I never understood the 10% thing either. And it seems incalculable if you are using your PC as a source.

 

[CnoEvil]

This is one that you are going to have to try for yourself.... after we've all argued about it until the thread is locked. 🙁 Spend no more than 10% of the value of your kit, but try before you buy.

I query this. 1% of the value of your equipment should be fine. The 10% figure is purely random, though it does help both dealers and manufacturers.

That's fine by me, but saying "no more than 10%" is puttng an upper limit,and encouraging the OP to pay less.

I also suggested trying out for himself - believing the OP more than capable of making up his own mind.

Life is too short to argue about cables, so am only clarifing my statement. 🙂

Goodluck
Cno

 

[tommyb]

honestly mate,
Van Damme Blue 2x2.5mm you can't go wrong. can be had for arounf £2 a metre. Buy with confidence.

 

[DIB]

I don't think the Op is any the wiser.

.

 

[aliEnRIK]

Forgot to say - grills OFF

Anything in front of a speaker cone will have a detrimental effect on the sound

I see somones mentione van damme blue. Ive tried both and much prefer the UP LC-OFC (less grain than the blue which is standard OFC)

 

[kev g]

Cables are important. A change from Kimber to the more expensive Chord Rumour 4 has made my system come alive. Everything is clearer and the bass much improved. Spending about 10% of your system total on cables is about right - if you can afford a little more then why not ? I would look at cables with a starting price of around £5 per metre (see review of cables on what hi-fi ) - look online you may find the same cable cheaper or grab it 2nd hand.

 

[the record spot]

My own experiences have shown remarkably little difference across prices bands from £7 to £200-odd. My tip would be to try by all means, but you may find that the ten metres of 322-strand / 14 AWG speaker cable I use currently (£5.49 for 10m all in, including postage from Digitalis Direct) did just as well as the Audioquest Type IV I'd used for a decade beforehand and which is still available.

The difference between my £20 QED Qunex 2s and the £200-odd Atlas Navigators is so small as to hardly make no difference. Thanks to a boneheaded error on my part, I did a compare with both when the QED was plugged into my Spitfire DAC and the Atlas pair were going into the CD player and there was indeed a slight difference. Plugging the QEDs into the CDP and swapping them out showed pratically nil difference between the two.

You pays your money and you takes your choice ultimately.