The age old argument of speaker cable quality has raged between audiophiles since the dawn of time (well not really, but certainly for quite a while). Some argue the quality of speaker cables is just as important as the quality of the Hi-fi components they’re connecting. Other enthusiasts save their cash buying budget cables and claim that they make no difference to the sound quality whatsoever.

So rather than poking our nose between these two opposing camps and risk getting dragged into the ongoing battle, lets elude the heated quarrel and instead offer up an overview of speaker cable jargon and give you some useful tips on how to buy your own.

How does resistance affect performance?

Generally speaking, resistance starts to have an effect on the performance of a speaker when resistance is greater than 5% of the speaker’s impedance. Resistance is affected by two key aspects: wire length and the cross sectional area of the wire. The shorter the wire is, the less resistance it will have. The trick here is to minimise wire lengths where possible but still ensure your speakers are positioned apart. It’s also important that the wire lengths to both speakers are the same to ensure they both have equal impedance values.

The cross sectional area of the wire is referring to the thickness, or gauge, of the wire. The thicker a wire or the lower the gauge, the less resistance. It is therefore a combination between speaker impedance, length and gauge that affects the resistance. The below table illustrates suggested speaker cable lengths that will ensure your speaker cable has a resistance less than 5% of your speaker’s nominal impedance given differing gauge measurements.

This article comes from cambridgeaudio edit released