Here's one: Offering $1million to audiophiles

[action9000]

Here's an interesting story:
http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/calling-bullshi...tter-305549.php

Basically, an offer of $1 million to anyone who can tell the difference in a practical setting (no instrumentation allowed, just the ear) between Monster speaker wire (already overpriced) and this new $7250 speaker wire ($302 per foot).

The test obviously isn't on this website but the article is...interesting in its own way.
*sigh*.

[Petrie.]

What a load of crack.  :  :  Wires are wires...the actual speaker matters more (as I've said so many times).

[Manny Cav]

It's probably a smart alack answer, like it's longer, or thicker, or something.

[action9000]

Storytime:
When I first set up my home theatre receiver/amplifier in my basement, I was using old speakers and even older speaker wire.  The speakers were your typical, boxy 3-way units which sounded boomy and not precise at all; they did have a big sound though, making them ideal for movies or playing DDR.  

Anyway, I had these things wired up with stuff so flimsy it fell apart every time I connected or disconnected the speakers, and of course the sound wasn't the best.  For Christmas, one of my friends got me enough 14AWG speaker wire to do my front speakers and my subwoofer.  Not super-expensive stuff but a million times better than what I was using.  The difference: absolutely nil from what I could hear.

20-year-old wire that had practically no substance at all was very comparable to brand new out-of-the-packing thick, juicy wiring.  Enough said. B)
Fair enough, I've never had good home theatre speakers to do this same test with but I think this makes a good enough case for the vast majority of people.

I'm still using that flimsy wire on the speakers in my room.  My computer speakers don't need "speaker wire" as they have built-in amps and just have a line-level connector to the computer's sound card.  It's a really cheap, old cable too but my speakers sound fine to me.

[action9000]

It's probably a smart alack answer, like it's longer, or thicker, or something.

There are definite scientific efforts that went into it to reduce electrical-related resistance, inductance and other bad things in signal lines.  

Longer speaker wires are just that: They'll connect to a speaker further away
Thicker..you can get speaker wire as thick or thin as you want, from any audio or home electronics store; nothing special about that.

We cannot deny that real technology exists in this wiring and that differences do exist if you measure the electrical signals of these versus cheaper wiring. This is a proven fact...The debate comes in when asked to compare the quality of wiring using nothing but the human ear.

[landbeforetimelover]

The purpose of a wire is to transfer the electricity via metal safely (meaning without killing or shocking the crap out of you. )  The only reason that component video is better than the old...uhhhh...coaxial??? cable is because of the new card on the board, not the wire.  Some have a slightly faster transfer rate because of the type of metal used, but nothing that matters to quality of either video or audio. :

[action9000]

That's basically true for the most part.  For audio, a copper wire can act like an antenna, picking up radio waves and sending them to the speaker.  This is especially bad if the amplifier is embedded within the speakers (like mine!) because then this noise becomes amplified as well, and is audible.

For most speaker systems though, the amplifier is placed on the opposite end of the speaker power wire.  The signal going through the speaker wire is very strong compared to any noise it may pick up, making the noise basically negligible.

That being said, I basically agree with that, landbeforetimelover.  The wire is only worth upgrading if the existing wiring is physically incapable of delivering sufficient power the speaker (wire of x diameter can only transfer y electrons per unit of time).  If the speaker is being starved of power, then the quality will fall.  Other than this, don't worry about the damn speaker wire.

[Petrie.]

Yeah but lots of wire is made of copper because its efficient in carrying the signal and doesn't corrode really fast.  Most headphones have copper wiring.  There is some truth and worth in getting gold tipped plugs to help cut down on corrosion compared to nickel (audible differences are terribly miniscule if they're even there at all).

[action9000]

There is some truth and worth in getting gold tipped plugs to help cut down on corrosion compared to nickel (audible differences are terribly miniscule if they're even there at all).

probably a good idea, especially if you want to keep the device around for awhile.  My sound card has gold-plated jacks, my headphones have a gold-plated plug.  Actually, my computer speakers (by far the most expensive audio components I own) have the poorest, cheapest wiring in either of my audio systems.  No gold connectors but they seem to do the job well enough.

Most things that are designed to be used enough that gold-plated connectors are worthwhile...have gold-plated connectors.  Most audio stuff does, actually.  My speaker signal wires don't because they're old and cheap.

the short answer: Don't worry about it! B)