If you have just started to become interested in state of the art audio equipment then no doubt you were shocked the first time you walked into a high end audio store and saw a five-figure price tag attached to what is essentially just a length of wire. Even the seemingly simplest components such as connectors can cost anywhere up to a few hundred dollars each! So if you just cannot justify spending that kind of cash, but still want to be able to enjoy similar levels of sound quality what can you do?
Thankfully, it is actually possible to achieve high end audio performance without having to pay high end prices!
As with most things in life it is possible to reach a point where the increase in cost of an item is not in proportion to the improvement in performance - in other words you end up paying super inflated prices but don't actually end up gaining much of an improvement for your money. What many consumers out there don't realize is that it is pretty easy to reach these higher levels of performance simply by making smart purchases.
Let's get something clear right away: a speaker cable is a speaker cable. There haven't really been any major advancements in the technology since the very first cables were produced. Of course, you will find some cables that are better than others but this is because the majority of manufactures out there have become so tied up in creating slick advertising campaigns and marketing meaningless buzzwords that they have forgotten that the most important thing in making a speaker cable that performs to a high level is to use the best possible materials during the manufacturing process.
The twisted pair design is great at cancelling out electromagnetic interference and RF noise. It's a technique that has been around since the late 1800s and it has remained in use because it is cheap to implement and is highly effective. So the basic technology used to produce speaker cables is exactly the same for the most basic cables and the cables that have five-figure price tags alike. The only factor that differentiates the performance of these cables is the quality of the materials used. For instance, a cable that is made using the best quality materials will perform to a much higher standard than a cable produced using the same techniques but making use of the cheapest, lowest quality materials.
The most effective materials to use in a speaker cable are pure silver insulated with Teflon; however this can lead to a cable that is very expensive. For those with tighter budget, silver plated copper insulated with polyethylene still provides high quality output for a much lower price.
Many people believe that copper is the best electrical conductor, but this is not the case. Silver is actually a much better conductor, which means that it delivers lower resistance and an increased frequency response. However, pure silver is a much more expensive material compared to copper, which is why many audio manufacturers, worried that switching to silver would have a massive impact on their profit levels, have encouraged rumours about silver sounding bright. A good alternative to using pure silver is to use silver plated copper - this is much more economical, yet delivers performance that is almost identical to its pure silver counterparts.
The insulation used in the speaker cable can also have an affect on performance. Teflon is considered to be the best insulator, however as with pure silver, Teflon is an expensive material. A good compromise is to use polyethylene, which again almost matches the performance of Teflon, but has a much more wallet friendly price tag.
By shopping around and carefully examining the specification of the speaker cable before making your purchase you can ensure that you get the very most for your money, regardless of your budget
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