High end speaker cables qualify up there with $300 gamer NIC cards.
I did the old ABX test a few years back with an audiophile buddy and some custom ribbon speakers. We found we could hear subtle but evident differences between solid core electrician's wire used for conduit to wire houses, etc., -vs- finely stranded wire of virtually any type. As long as the guage was sufficient, it didn't matter what brand of speaker cable we used, as long as it was stranded. The thick solid wire though sounded weird and had some obvious phase differences.
My layman's understanding of this is that higher frequency 'sounds' tend to propogate on the surface of a conducter because of capacitance issues, and stranded wire regardless of guage has greater surface area than solid core.
So, in essence copper IS copper, but finely stranded wire seems to handle a wide mix of frequencies different than a solid chunk of copper wire. Just don't use Home Depot conduit to wire your speakers, and you should be all set.
I did the old ABX test a few years back with an audiophile buddy and some custom ribbon speakers. We found we could hear subtle but evident differences between solid core electrician's wire used for conduit to wire houses, etc., -vs- finely stranded wire of virtually any type. As long as the guage was sufficient, it didn't matter what brand of speaker cable we used, as long as it was stranded. The thick solid wire though sounded weird and had some obvious phase differences.
My layman's understanding of this is that higher frequency 'sounds' tend to propogate on the surface of a conducter because of capacitance issues, and stranded wire regardless of guage has greater surface area than solid core.
So, in essence copper IS copper, but finely stranded wire seems to handle a wide mix of frequencies different than a solid chunk of copper wire. Just don't use Home Depot conduit to wire your speakers, and you should be all set.
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