Here's what I know for sure from personal experience: First, the only problem I've ever had with cable was when I used the interconnect cable which came with my purchase of a Roxio Easy LP to MP3 kit that also included an analog to digital converter. The converter, as well as the cable produced hum. Second, all of my other interconnect cables, RCA, IEC 958, and Toslink are from Sony. They were advertised as being premium. No problem with these except Toslink sometimes does not lock into position causing loss of signal. Now, my speaker wire is 14 gauge from Monster, which is attached to speakers and amps via banana plugs. No problem with this arrangement as long as I don't trip over the cable to unplug it. At any rate, the 14 gauge speaker wire was what JBL recommended to get the best performance; and, so far, going back to 1986, it seems to be working, that's to say, I sense my audio/video system is presenting all there is in the groove/disc/stream to get. Thing is, I could be wrong about that, not having heard high cost AudioQuest interconnect or speaker cable. I do know there was an AudioQuest demonstration a few years back where the demonstrator manipulated the gain controls to favor more expensive cables. The divergence I hear in the YouTube piece when cables are changed suggests another track which was somewhat clipped was substituted too. No one would think to ask that question. Also, the raw material expense of copper wire extruded and spun to any notion just does not at all correlate with the consumer price for it. This makes me suspicious and totally uninterested in entertaining AudioQuest products.
