Respect Gene for giving the answer at the beginning of the video, and then elaborating on the topic, instead of the other way around!

"The answer is no." Subscribed.

I love that he gives the answer to the question right in the beginning. Now I actually want to watch the full video just out of respect

What is really special is that some people spend more on audio cables than I do on RF cables for 40 GHz testing. I really admire Gene's stamina on being wiling to address this issue for the people with amnesia about the last time they asked about audio cables.

After getting the straight up answer, I stayed to listen to the entire video. Tell me the answer and then explain, perfect format. Subscribed!

The fact that this is even worth a video is just sad, man. This industry is full of shit sometimes. you and your team put so much love and effort into your videos and website. It's the first place I check when I want information on a specific product. Always honest, in depth and just filled to the brim with knowledge. You need a lot more subscribers.

Love how you're still giving the middle finger to these scam artist cable companies. Wish more people would wake up to them. Thanks Gene!!

I am a big fan of Audioholics. That said, I reluctantly watched this video thinking this was yet another rant of Gene's about a bad experience he had with a cable vendor or manufacturer. Not that that is not interesting; I was shocked about the situation he encountered at a recent audio show last year. But I thought this video was going to be redundant... On the contrary, I instead got a lot out of this video as it was a good summary of the science. Thank you once again for another informative and interesting video, Gene. Keep them coming!

If you want better sound, invest in better speakers.

Gene!! You should win”Audiophile Truth” of the decade award !!!

People freaking out over speaker cable quality must have never seen the cheap a$$ wires going from the circuit board to the terminal inside the amp

Gene! I just shared this on about 15 audiophile Facebook groups and disabled commenting ....🤣🤣🤣. Truth can be such a weapon to some.

Do the same vídeo about standard power cord vs other high quality power cords.

Audiophiles still won't believe this. Great video and spot on information through testing 👍

There's a reason the owner of Audioquest lives in a 5 million dollar condo in a beach town shopping center.

Gene, thanks for this video and others like it. It’s refreshing to get explanations and analysis based in science and engineering rather than audio fantasy. You perform a vital service for the audio enthusiast community.

Kimber Kable looks fantastic, so in terms of aesthetics, they are clearly the prettiest

WOW! What an outstanding explanation and recommendations! Just incredible and such a refreshing presentation. Bravo!

I have been using low voltage garden cable from Home Depot and they work terrific. Short is 14 gauge and long is 12 gauge (20’ and more than 10’). Work like a champ.

Good video thanks. I have had discussions with a few audiophiles over the years who told me (who has a background in electronics and RF) I didn't know what I was talking about when I suggested they may as well use thick gauge mains flex instead of the fancy expensive speakers cable they had shelled out a small fortune for. Tried explaining basic transmission line theory and that at audio frequencies for short runs they didn't need to worry about capacitance/inductance or skin effect. They wouldn't believe me, said the expensive stuff sounded noticeably better. I gave up in the end.

He's educated and does his research. Ill save my money and get cool gear instead. Gene, youre a savant.

the more you pay, the more unicorns will come out of your sound system.

Blue jeans all the way. My wife doesn't get near my system so what it looks like.... Doesn't matter! Of course she married me so...looks must not matter to her either! :-D

Has anyone read the Stereophile article "What a Difference a Wire Makes" (June 12, 2020, First Published: Dec 1, 1995)? It shows that low inductance plays much larger role than low resistance. And they do provide real waveform distortion mesurements not just "I am telling you guys...".

I watch this video from time-to-time to better appreciate the Blue Jeans 10-white speaker cables I use. I really appreciate your effort, testing and honesty👍👍

Hey Gene, after watching the show for a year or two now I’ve seen the light and eBay’d my QED Bullcrap speaker cable with equivalent of 16awg lathered up in snake oil. Replaced it with some Van Damme UP-LCOFC 6mm which is around 9.5 gauge. Even when I bought the QED cable I didn’t think it sounded quite as good as the bottom of the range zip chord 14 gauge plain OFC cable from the same brand but I still bought it because of the marketing. It just sounded a bit lifeless despite being ‘silver’ plated. Looking at the specs now the resistance was way better in the cheaper model. What an idiot. I will no longer worry about cables, decent gauge shotgun will do me fine until I die. Thank you Audioholics 👌🏻

I got into this hobby around 60 years ago. Stereo itself was the big thing. No solid state components existed. During that time and for many years afterwards there was no such thing as a speaker cable company. Zip cable of a thick enough gauge was what you used and that was it. Now after all these years Gene’s research and testing has validated my observation. I have never been able to tell the difference. Thanks again Gene for an outstanding video.

Based on your reviews, I splurged on a pair Kimber 8TC about a year ago as I only needed 5ft, so I figured why not.

As an electrical engineer and audiophile, AKA; audio-FOOL, I have tried to help others understand the basics of audio cable measurements/ohms law to no avail. Most will go out and spend more on their cables than they do on some of their nicer audio components. Which is foolishness unless, like you said, they enjoy their bragging rights. One company will charge you north of $20K for a pair of amp to speaker hookup cables; thats CRAZY !!! Another well =known company in Colorado will lift over $30K from your wallet for the same cables. Thanks for putting up the basic electrical theory which most people should be able to grasp. Great presentation !!! Personally, I enjoy putting the money into components and media.

Monoprice cl2 in wall 14 awg is what I use,great job gene,

Gene I bought a Yamaha Aventage receiver in 2015 which is when I starting watching Audioholics. I am a mechanical engineer but did do some electrical subjects. When you dropped the snake oil bomb on cables I laughed so much I was crying and I nearly fell off the couch. Then the 1kHz 10% distortion power ratings 😂 . Well let’s just say “I’m here to testify, snake oil is real and is out there!” Love your work

GENE!!!! We are missing a huge portion of cables and interconnects!!! Please do a video regarding XLR and RCA Interconnects as well! THANK YOU.

Blue Jeans Cable 10 gauge here, with locking bananas

I use 12 ga speaker wire from Home Depot. The cables are terminated with soldered-on gold-plated banana plugs.

Please do one on RCA cables. Love the work Gene!

I tried Gene’s 14 4 “hack” and have been really pleased! Not sure what vid it’s in but involves using a cable with 4 14 AWG conductors and joining each pair to make two conductors with an effective gauge of about 11 AWG I think. Some slick cable pants and terminators and you get some pretty decent cables sans snake oil. Thanks Gene! Love Audioholics!

To reply to Gene’s request about what cables I use - My fronts are studio monitors, so they don’t have cables in the sense that most speakers do. For my surrounds and ceiling speakers, I use 16/2. The requirements for those speakers are quite a bit less than for the fronts, and over the lengths of the runs (all under 20 feet), I don’t detect any issues.

Thank you ! Straight forward info with no unnecessary bs ! Using 10' runs of 8pr with hybrid tube amp with Salk monitors! Great affordable system with immense sound stage depth ! Been listening to audio for over fifty years, and I am satisfied with this one !!

I use two runs of CAT 6 wire per post (2 positive and 2 on the negative).It cost me $63 for a thousand foot spool. My speakers definitely sounded a little brighter than the monster cable it replaced.

As usual Honesty backed up by science and good knowledge of the subject matter . Thank you !!!

Some cable companies don't even report what gauge the cable is. Imagine that!

Great video Gene. I have handcrafted my own cable with a total Awg of 6, more or less, which outperforms a solid core silver monocrystal cable of 100 times more expensive. I wanted to prove the expensive high end Audio industry wrong and yes Gene you are right. Exotic speaker cables are pure Snake Oil. These Snake Oil designs take a lot of people for a ride. Even I fell for that, but at least I am over it and know the truth now. Now I only use my Snake Oil cable as a comparison test against my design's. You are right Gene, it's all about resistance and what I found out is that a big part lies in linear frequency transfer of the Audio Bandwidth in a cable design I had a lot of fun designing that cable.

Again, sober, well-documented/supported, cogent discussion. I have a number of different types of cabling, mostly to explore and experiment. Most of it around or under the level of the Kimber 8TC; and I do use Kimber 8TC. I wanted to see whether cables might make a difference I would notice. I don't find much, if any sonic difference among different cabling - speaker, interconnects of different types connecting among different components. Of course, I'm already at the level of using what most folks would call very high-quality, if not over-the-top exotic, cables. A couple of things to share. I've had the situation where over time some OFC copper will begin to develop an oxidation layer inside the wire jacket. It will turn that green/brown color. It seems to be from an interaction between the copper and the materials used in the jacket. Not all OFC copper wire seems to do this. This green stuff doesn't help move a signal down the wire. When I was in high school, just getting into the audio hobby, I had just spent a big part of the money I'd earned from my summer jobs to buy Dynaco's best transistor electronics kits at the time - an ST-416 amplifier and PAT-5 BiFET preamp. I loved building them. I was so excited to hook them up. I grabbed some wire I had on hand and connected everything - and OMG, it sounded AWFUL. Nothing but distortion. I had connected the speakers using solid core copper bell wire. Well, I learned long time ago what wire doesn't work. Some 12AWG lamp cord and problem solved. Not so much to single out Blue Jean's - for a good thing , in this case. They are also straight-talking about cabling, and perhaps mixing this straight talk with some opining (which can also be useful). The wire/cable that they use is fine quality to start - lots of Belden and Canare. No issues there. For good-value basics, you can easily grab some some Belden or Canare, add some nice terminations, and DIY some very nice cable variations quickly, easily, and affordably.

Still find it hilarious that audiophiles spend more on cables than retro gaming enthusiasts do on cables to transmit analog video (which is notorious for being prone to interference).

Sounds to me like zip cord is all you really need for the great majority of systems. Zip cord should always be in comparison tables so you can see what the premium price is buying you, if anything.

Absolutely awesome video. To answer Gene's question, I use custom handmade cables out of 12 AWG THHN stranded copper rated at 105 degrees C at a maximum of 600 volts. Twelve twists per foot, 10 feet in length. [Since I built them myself, I made them the *exact* perfect length so no looping on the floor!] The cost was nearly zero since the company I worked for was doing remodeling and throwing wire in the trash right and left before recycling was a thing. My system sounds absolutely spectacular. Yamaha receiver pushing 130 watts x 2. Speaker cabinets I also custom built with Pioneer and Focal drivers - and Dayton three way crossovers and L-pads - hand tuned with RTA. The entire system probably cost me under $1,000.00 and after 20 years I would stand it up to any of the systems Sound by Singer sells for ten times as much. Most of the real cost is the long hours building the speaker cabinets. The cables took me *maybe* five minutes each including tinning the ends and soldering the terminations on.

I once bought a secondhand Audioquest Gibraltar cable that performed much better than my QED Revelation signature. In the end, I discovered the QED where flawed or badly designed. Nowadays, I use SVS cables , several times less expensive than Audioquest and there is no difference in sound. By the way, they look nice and are more flexible and easier to use.

I have had the same Monster cable XP for years. It has always served me well in both my car and home audio. I got it from a friend who got it with a gift card he won in a contest so.... It was "technically" free. :-) I have so much of it that I doubled it up for my high powered car audio system.

Big Yessss from a non believer, Western Electric WE16GA VW-1 which are made with a mix of tin and cooper (tin is better conductor than cooper) is like adding a new dac to your equipment, also glass toslink cable with 400 or 200 strands are way to better than any top sales cable at Amazon.

That reminded me of the blind listening test, where some golden ears "audiophools" couldn't distinguish between some expensive Monster cables and 4 soldered together coat hangers.

I use Nordost 4 flat speaker cables. They were recommended to me by a man with ears I absolutely trust. He's a respected audio engineer and uses Nordost cables himself.

My secret ritual for getting the best out of my cables? I watch videos like this, and then play some music and relax...

Companies who make these expensive cables must hate you, Gene. You inform and educate the masses and I'm sure those companies would rather have people kept in the dark about the truth.

Remember folks, speaker cables are not gain stages. They are a method of final drive to speakers. They have very little to do with sound at all. Back at the amplifier inputs is where you can make *some* difference in sound with your cables since you have so much gain there and small differences can have larger effects (shielding, twisted pairs etc). Save your money for better speakers and you'll hear the most difference

Dont know about speakers cables but different headphones and iem cables does change the sound somewhat

It's amazing to me how people fight me over this on my channel. Thanks for making this video!

In the snob-o-sphere, they hate treble. If a 16" Paiste signature crash cymbal has that crisp attack and silvery decay it's just too bright and harsh. They need cables with built in filter circuits to gently roll off the treble so it's nice as "musical" , that is if you prefer a cymbal that sounds like it has gaffers tape on the edge.

Cheers Gene. Once again brother, another good honest video. Saying hello from the UK. ✌👍

The technical stuff goes over my head. We used a speaker cable made by a British company called Chord. The product was called Odyssey 2. It looked really nice and good material quality, I think it was about $20 per metre. It is silver coated oxygen free wire. It seems to be good.

A cable is a cable is a cable. I use wire from broken toasters or appliances. Smoothest and clearest sound ever.

As usual, I watch a video about audio gear, and my good stuff is that guy's cheap stuff.

I can't believe we live in a world where cable cosmetics matter. MADNESS. But my cables are blessed by the Pope.

Here we go again. It is almost spooky how someone can just give you the engineering without an angle. Thanks dude and best wishes from NZ.

I just use 12 or 14 guage zip cord with cheap banana plugs. A long run for me is 20 feet though for surrounds and normally under that. I have tried other kinds of wire from cheap lamp cord to housing wire to Monster cable back in the day. Never noticed a difference with listening or using test tones and a spl meter. I even tried some nice pre made cables once. My local high end store talked me into trying them by letting me taking them home to test them. I left a small deposit that I could get back when I brought them back. They were not super expensive though, I think like 90 bucks a set back in the 80's. I couldn't tell a difference so I took them back. I under stand poeple getting nice pre mades though if they want something well built and/or looks pretty. Nothing wrong with that, just not someting I am spending my money on is all. The only thing I really spend extra money on is antenna wire for my police scanner or something. Because that is going to be over 50 foot runs and have splitters and stuff in it. And then that is just nice RG6, not fancy expensive stuff the HAM guys use. I didn't know about the inductance issues with having the leads too far apart though. Thanks for that info. I never saw the point in having huge expensive wires when you pop the speaker open and see the small cheap wires they use inside lol. I always loved it when I saw the car guys using battery cable to wire up their subwoofer that was 2 foot away from the amp lol.

Very informative video, thank you.

I use Monoprice 14 gauge speaker cables, it's reasonable in price and it works.😉👍

Monoprice 12AWG wire has done me very well over the past few years! 😉👍

Have you tried the Purple Rain cables? Nothing compares to it. They're purified in the waters of Lake Minnetonka. It makes your speakers sound like doves crying.

I have eliminated all issues regarding speaker cables. I use powered studio monitors.

Anyone who gives this a thumbs down is a jackass !!! Gene!! Well said brother. You are a man of trust and character. It takes a real person of value to stand up against an industry that he’s so integrated in!!

I respect my opinion Gene because that has been my experience as well. There are some and you probably know who they are that obsess over cable differences and I'm not suggesting that there aren't, but as you say, picking an audible difference between a reasonably priced quality cable and a supposedly high end expensive one is like splitting hairs in my opinion and I have a good ear for that stiff. Apparently you can pick the difference if everything about your system, placement and room is perfect. Do we believe that the earth is flat as well or am I missing something?

Bought a Rogue Sphinx v3 and Klipsch RP8000 speakers and a schiit Bifrost dac. I was using plain old speaker cable and then bought a cheap used set of Audioquest Rocket33. I'm new to stereo equipment but a lifelong musician with a trained ear. The difference was stark. My wife noticed the improvement, and I hadn't even told her I'd done anything different. I'd prefer cables to not make a difference and save money, but it seems that to me they do. Perhaps it depends on the system.

YES THEY DO. At least some better cables in some systems. In my system there is a clear difference between a budgetcable and a more expensive one ( of the same brand). Which makes perfect sense. And no, I'm not a snob or an audiophool or a placebo victim. Just using my ears, like everyone should..... And don't you hear any difference? Perfect! Saves you a lot of money :-))

Well made Nice cables does sound better. For me. Becouse i know They are expensive, and rly Nice looking. So i will feel that the sound is better.(witch is not) but placebo works in many forms. :)

One of the many benefits of being 67 years of age is my Tannoy Cheviots that I've owned from new since 1975 sound as good today as they did when my hearing was a lot better. i.e. the Tannoys sound better than my ears can hear. I just enjoy the music.

While I've worked in Electrical Engineering for 25+ years, I only have a diploma in Electronics Technologies focused on in the RF area and always had a passion for audio. For what it's worth I'll back this guy 100% even exceeding how little is needed in what's stated when I consider what's necessary in HiFi audio for cables. All of this because we are referencing . To put it bluntly, hi-fi cable companies thrive on the ignorance of the average "Audiophile". They know they can take 1% truth and fool the average audiophile into buying their products. IF, we were talking Radio Frequency cables more of which these companies try to sell folks on could be taken a little more seriously. LISTEN, to people who have real education in such subjects and not folks who stand to profit from potential deception. My rule to average hi-fi listeners is 70~80 percent into speakers, spend the rest as you see fit. To those with $$$, start with your room, then your speakers, then the rest as you see fit. In both cases high dollar cables are simply a waste of your hard earned $ because good quality cables are actually very cheap in the big picture.

So glad youve cleared the cable thing for me. Im an absolute beginner in this and ive been umming an arring bout buying expensive cable, money which i do not have or would want to spend on cable,for your honesty youve got a new subscriber.

I always felt that gauge and material are the determining factors over exotic claims...

Nice, helpful video. Just like any other segment of our lives, companies are desperately trying to do what they can to profit, even if that means keeping us misinformed and confused. It really is a HUGE roadblock in our quest to achieve the best in audio performance. Components and speakers are the real difference makers.

Thanks! I need o go to a AA (cAble Ahoics) meeting. I know they don't make a difference, but I'm still making my own exotic DIY cables. I'm mainly about how they look and not expecting any audio gains, but I've spent way too much time and money on my cables. They do look sick and I don't spend a fortune on them, so all in good fun. Seeing the data confirms everything I already knew.

So, I'm a noob. I bought 100 feet of 16 AWG cable because the seller told me it's more than enough... Am I really missing sound quality ?

Hi Gene, on my Meridian / MBL pre-power / Dynaudio system I (still, after many years) use A.R.T. branded Yamamura Churchill Millennium cables, for both line and speakers. I chose the YC’s after a dealer allowed me to test in my home a box of “esoteric” cables from many brands. The YC’s added an additional bass layer compared to my previous Nordost Red Dawn / Audiosynthesis / VdH 352 mix and smoothed sibilants out. YC’s really made the difference, even though price was borderline to astronomical for short runs of cables. A few months ago I moved to a new apartment and I have to replace my current 2 x 4 meters speakers cables with 2 x 5 meters and I am not anymore in the mood to make expensive experiments. Friends advised for Dynavox or Bespeco cables based on optimal price performance ratios, also given that testing cables before buying is not an option anymore. Since I live in Rome, US shopping is very difficult and I have to source within the EU. Your video was highly informative, I took notes about some key passages on awg vs length and resistance parameters. Thanks for sharing your knowledge.

I used to get a spool at Radio Shack (or whereever) because it was cheap-- you know, the stuff with a copper wire and a silver (aluminum?) wire. It worked, but it usually was pretty poor quality and would break, it was thin, etc. etc. I eventually started buying extension cords that were at least 12 gauge and cutting them to fit. Some of them are even designed to look decent or can at least be relatively easily color matched. Because I have relatively nice equipment, people think they're going to get me to say that I have some kind of crazy expensive cable (I don't know why else they'd ask unless they did honestly want to know what I thought was good) and are usually surprised when I point to the extension cord that I got at a hardware store. My thinking is that if it can safely run 12-15amps through it without a problem, it's not going to provide any noticeable resistance for an audio signal. I don't know why I've never seen your channel before. You make me feel sane in an insane world :D

So, when people say: Expensive cables matter (although we don't know why), don't let ANYBODY tell you differently - that somebody is Gene. I'm gladly letting you tell me! Thanks, Gene!

Always irritating to see people unliking an informational video. Don't want to learn from a logic point of view? Scroll on!

So great! (just picked/bought cables last week and chose the blue jeans you started with, before I saw this, love it). Thank you for doing these.

I soak my speaker cables In Holy water 😂 🤣 😂. Another awesome informative video Gene, ty sir!

Ever heard of cable companies saying that cables need at least 100 hours of burn in? I couldn't believe it, there are people out there who thinks a metal gives a damn if it's being used and not overheated? But you should put their claims to the test just for lolz, you probably have some hundred hours on some cables at home.

One question I'm always left with is, if I don't want to make my own, what IS a good price for cables? At what point price point does it become about style and fluff over performance?

👍🏻😎 I use Monoprice Choice 12 gauge speaker wire in 10' lengths. I got a 300 foot roll for $69. Thats about half of what the MSRP is. I'm more than happy with it. It would have been nice to have it in 10 gauge, but for short runs it's more than adequate and you can't beat the price for 100% OFC speaker wire.

Knukonceptz are what I use. Kord Ultra Flex 10 Gauge Speaker Wire - over sized Oxygen Free Copper speaker cable provides superior frequency response compared to smaller, conventional speaker wire. Each conductor is composed of 462 strands

Thanks for not dumbing this down too much. Some of it was over my head but that’s how you learn. Great video!

Finally a reasonable video about speaker cables. One thing about testing and comparing speaker cables. Before you take out your original cables and put the new ones in. Reseat your old ones. Clean the contacts and reattach them first! Then switch in the new cables. The majority of wow-factor difference between two pair of reasonably good to great speaker cables is just because the termination is different now. Do this reseating and cleaning regularly and you get to enjoy the "wow"-factor several times a year without spending anything.

Excellent video, clear facts and a money saver. Thanks Gene!

Im using 16 and 14 gauge Amazon basics wire with installgear banana plugs on a RC70 and Martin Logan HT set up...Im happy :)

Measuring electrical signals with electronic equippment on cables is like comparing the top speed of a Ferrari and a Fiat Uno in a traffic jam. It makes no sense. You have to measure the acoustic waves, that is what our ears listen to.

Hi Gene, does this apply to Interconnects also??? What about balanced vs. single-ended? Thanks for your hard work!

Great video. I wonder if one day we might see a video renouncing your position on cables like we saw on digital amps and turntables;) ?

Great video. BJC sound just fine in my system. Would be great if you did one on RCA cables also!

Would be cool to see a test with the cheapest scrap cable you can find vs some hifi ones. Matching the resistance of course.