In article , Mark R Penn wrote:
Why so aggressive Roderick - I'm agreeing with you, not arguing.

Sorry, it wasn't intended to seem aggressive. I was simply hoping to clarify
what actual physical quantity people think they are talking about when the
"quality" of loudspeaker cables is discussed with regard to their putative
different effects on the sound. Use of terms like "quality" (and other even
less scientific ones) can make claims nice and vague, and therefore difficult
to refute.

I would have thought that in a typical domestic hi-fi setup, the only
meaningful physical property of the loudspeaker cables would be their
electrical resistance. This is a straightforward electrical quantity that can
be measured to as much accuracy as you feel like paying for, and about which
there is no need for any mystique or mumbo-jumbo. You just get a resistance
meter and measure it, or calculate it from the cross-sectional area and the
resistivity of copper. It is easy and very inexpensive to ensure that the
resistance of the loudspeaker cables is less than that of the loudspeakers by
several orders of magnitude, at which you'd think that any rational person
would cease to regard it as something that even needs thinking about. I doubt
if many of the people who ridicule the use of bell wire or lighting flex for
this purpose (because it isn't of suitable "quality") have any idea of the
relevant numbers.

I'm assuming that it must be possible to install cables of such poor quality
(you said "from B&Q with a decent amount of copper", so poor quality in this
context would presumably mean not enough copper?) that the sound quality
degrades? That doesn't mean that the quality will improve if you add more or
"better" copper once you have enough though. My lights shine as bright as
they ever will with 3amp (or whatever) cable. Installing 150mm sq armoured
won't make them shine (perceivably) any brighter.

Well, it appears that you are talking about resistance, and talking sense, but
I wouldn't be surprised if somebody tries to convince us that there is
something more, some mysterious property of copper wire that every scientist
and engineer for the past century and a half has missed.

Rod.