The Speaker Cable Site

So you’ve recently bought a nice new hi-fi or home theatre system, and now you need something to hook up your loudspeakers. Your salesman at the store has probably tried to sell you some higher end cables, but at the exorbitant prices you decide that the benefits he’s described to you sound a bit too good to be true for a piece of copper in some plastic.

Don’t worry. You’re not alone.

The market these days is saturated with thousands of cable products, from the very cheapest “it’ll do the job” hook-up wire to multi-thousand dollar (no exaggeration) “audiophile grade” cable. Adding to this, every home appliance salesman is constantly being pushed by companies with heavy marketing budgets to flog off their accessory products and extended warranties. So how does the average consumer choose between them? What’s a “good amount” to spend? How do you tell the quality cables from the ones with more fluff than substance?

Don Marcos is a friend and former colleague of mine who is a world leading expert on cable performance, with over 15 years in the industry. He works in the sound recording industry and has come from a solid background of electronic and acoustic engineering, and has with extensive industry experience.

“Cables do affect sound, so spend at least 10% of your system’s cost on this. Just remember to be sensible, there’s no need to go overboard.”

It’s generally accepted in the hi-fi community that cables make some difference. More importantly for the average Joe is the fact that bad cables can be detrimental to performance.

“You don’t want to go too cheap on cables. If you buy a 4 thousand dollar system, you don’t want to skimp on the cables and restrict performance. It’ll be a waste.”

This method works. First, take your system’s cost and take a fraction of its total value. You’d probably want to budget 10-15% of it on cables and accessories.

Ok, so now that you’ve got your budget. Where do you go from there? You could spend it all on a single piece of cable that’s got some features which just sound like technical jargon. Or you could go for the more basic stuff that’s thick (because thicker is better, right?).

The truth about speaker cables is that, like speakers, there is no one defining factor. Don’t get caught up on the details of the specs – usually they’re designed to exaggerate the product’s capabilities anyway. On the lower end, it’s true that the thicker the copper conductor, the better the cable. You’ll also need to make sure that the conductor is OFC (Oxygen Free Copper, typically 99.5% pure). However once it gets to about 12AWG or even 14AWG, the improvement in sound becomes less and less significant as the thickness increases. Once the cable is sufficiently thick, other factors such as more exotic materials, better design and improved manufacturing techniques will become the more significant factors in determining quality.

Some examples of these are: silver conductors, purer than OFC copper, criss-crossed or twisted pair conductors, smooth surfaced conductors, independent conductor insulation, optimised conductor thickness, etc. With most of the more advanced technologies, there is significant debate over whether or not they work (or at least how much improvement they bring). However it is generally accepted that most of these ideas at least have some measurable effect.

So how do you choose the right one for you? First, decide a budget. Then decide how much length you need. This will give you an approximate per meter cost. Use this cost and buy a cable that is within this budget. If it’s a lower end system, just choose the thickest OFC cable you can afford. If you’ve got a few hundred dollars, you may want to have a look at the higher end gear, with better conductors such as silver or twisted pair conductors. Personally, I’m a huge fan of twisted pair silver cables. Don’t buy a cable just because it’s from a big brand, most smaller brands carry similar products at less cost.

Remember, the most important thing is to enjoy the music or your movies. There’s no point spending too much time deciding which speaker cable to buy if you won’t be using them!