High quality cables empower your speakers to play any sound as it was meant to be heard. Better cable uses more wire strands that are tightly wound, allowing the audio signal to pass more freely through the cable. The sound difference is almost like buying new speakers.
Power Jam
Use of better speaker cable allows the amplifier to run power more efficiently
to the speakers with less resistance. This keeps the backlog of power down, and
your amp running cooler. The easiest way to picture this effect is a traffic jam.
Cars jam up when lanes merge, but can easily move on when more lanes are available.
Better cable lets the power run freely by providing more "lanes" for
the audio signal to travel though.
How Much?
Most high-quality speaker cable that general consumers will purchase runs from
75 cents per foot, to $5.00 per foot. High-end cable can cost upwards of $1000 per
pair, although these cable are made for the extreme audiophiles and ultra-expensive
home theaters. It is true that the more you pay for cable the better it sounds,
but that ratio of price versus performance drops off dramatically after $5.00
a foot. $2.00 a foot speaker cable is usually the best way to go and doesn't break
the bank.
Home theaters, on average, have 10-15 foot speaker cable runs to the main channels (left, right, and center). So it should cost about $60-$90 to upgrade your all your front channel speaker cabling.
Using 75 cents a foot speaker cable for the rear channels may be the best way to go. The reasons for this are that it's easier to hide and run the smaller cable, and it's more economical. With surround speaker cable runs averaging 50-100 feet in length you could spend a fortune running more expensive cable to your surround speakers. Fifty foot reels are usually available at $40-$50, and you'll most likely need one reel for each surround speaker for a total of about $100 for both surround speakers.
The Price of Perfection
For about $160 you can rewire all you speakers and make your system produce sound
like you've never heard before. It's about the cheapest upgrade you can do, and
you won't be sorry. Don't skimp on the rear speakers either. Ideally all your
speakers should use the same cable, and it is just for economics sake that you
would use a slightly lesser high quality cable for the surround speakers. If you
need to spend less, you can use 75 cents a foot cable for all of your speakers.
This will still improve your system dramatically, and save you a couple dollars.
Try It For Yourself!
There are many critics and closed-minded individuals who simply will not listen
to reason when it comes to use of high quality cable. These people are just plain
idiots.
If you're not a believer (or maybe a little skeptical) just do your own test. Simply buy a pair of high quality speaker cables, and test them on your front main speakers with stereo listening. If you don't hear a dramatic difference in sound that's worth every cent and more, then your probably high or deaf.
Anyone that wants to really hear their system perform at its best will use high quality speaker cable. Feel free to do a test, but your going to have to go back to the store to get cable for the rest of your system. After you hear the difference you won't be able to imagine listening to a system that doesn't use high quality speaker cable.
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