I auditioned a lot of home audio lately and speaker cables make a huge difference, i don't know about car audio but I don't understand why it would be any different

Was this doing double blind testing, or not?

You may be suprised..

Well If you have enough xperience with a decent home system then you should be able to differentiate a sh;t cable from the good quality one straight away. you can always quote me on that. I had been listening to hi-end home system since I was born because my dad was a hardcore audiophile. my 23 years experience can proove me on that

funny this topic. just last week i was mucking around with speaker cable for my home theatre set up, and did a back to back listening test on speaker cables.

i wandered into jaycar for some bits & pieces, and ended up ordering the 2.5 metre pre made prenium speaker leads worth 89.95. i got them because of the huge insulation on them, and quality terminaltions. i figured with all the cable i have behind my av cabinet, the insul would help.

my old leads where off the reel 14 guage twin clear insul, i think from jaycar originally as well. i had fitted the ends of these with neotech banana's, but i soldered these to the leads instead of using the grub screws.

gear.

b & w dm602 series 3 front speakers.
denon av-1802 theatre amp.
(all other speakers disabled for test.)

software.

crouching tiger track 28. the sorrow ending.
tears for fears - women in chains.
star wars sound track from cd. episode 4. music only.

new jaycar 90 buck leads.

i found it very hard to tell the difference with these leads. but, there was one. the new jaycars bought a slightly crisper sound to the highs, and fuller attack and second/third harmonics. on the drums of track 28 crouching tiger, i could hear the strings of the chello clearer which was the most notable difference compared to my old leads.

as a extreme test, i grabbed some real crap cable i had laying in my store room. 16 guage white insul crap and i used the banana terminals screw downs to terminate.
this really shot my speakers down. highs became coarse and irritating and introduced slight sibulance and destroyed the harmonics. totally.
track 28 chello sounded like a tom cat on heat.
i thought i would loose my warranty if i continued using the crap cable any longer!

conclusion. i probably wasted 90 bucks. mainly because my old cables where not so bad i guess after all.
but the point of the exercise shows that you need good quality speaker leads. ample guage, good insulation and above all, proper termination.

also that warm fuzzy feeling played a part. using cheep cable with $2,000 + worth of amp/speakers just doesnt feel right.

[ May 22, 2003, 16:33: Message edited by: audible ]

In your 23 years of experience, have you ever done a double blind listening test with different cables?

i think the home audio market is vastly different because of the nature the equipment and the components used to poduce the equipment.
Much of them is higher grade and will be more sensitive to carp accessories like crap speaker wire. thats why home audio mags do cable testing (blindfolded or no blindfolded)to assess the nature of different wires from different brands.

not all copper is the same grade and not all silver is the same grade. There will always be a difference depending on the ability of your equipment to register that difference.

Most car audio equipment cannot match the quality of home audio and it never will. Therefore maybe in car audio there is no difference but hey, not everybody's hearing ability is the same right.

I use stinger wire. even though its expensive its got two layers rubber protection which i need cause the insides of my car there are a lot of sharp rivets and screws which scratch the outer coating of my wire as i install the speakers. I just don't want bare copper wire popping out thats all. dunno bout the sound though but shouldn't make much difference cuz my dyns in the car ain't gonna match the sensitivity of a BnW.