[sumone]

What makes a wire good, be it power, signal, or speaker? What's the difference and is it worth it/noticable? How do you "listen" for a good wire? I'm just confused on how some people say wire A sounds like "this" & wire B sounds like "that"...

Help a noob out!

 

[rickcr42]

conductor purity and grain structure then construction geometry and insulator dielectric

 

[sumone]

conductor purity
- Good:
- Bad:

grain structure
- Good:
- Bad:

construction geometry
- Good:
- Bad:

insulator dielectric
- Good:
- Bad:

 

[jumping jupiters]

The only way you can describe one cable is in comparison to another. Peeps are increadibly opinionated when it comes to wires. To hear that one is analytical or another is bright and yet another is colored is misleading unless you are hearing it on your system. Until I actually bought 3 different brands in the same price range and sat down with each for weeks I could never have guessed the final choice by reading reviews or hearing opinions. I honestly feel that wires are not night and day from one another, but more the last bit of synergy one can attain from an already well put together system. I guess all I am saying is that until you buy two different cables and compare them in an A/B setup you will never know what analyical or warm means when it comes to presentation. If you have one good cable dig around for a no-name cable or get one from RadioShack and you will begin to develop an ear for cables (how exciting)!

One last thing...picking out a wire is like picking a puppy out of a litter. All the puppies come from the same two dogs so they are incredibly similar, however there are the tiniest differences (barring color).

 

[dura]

Yes, it depends al on the quality of your components and your preferences.
Me, for LS and IC I favor braided solid-core teflon-isolated, preferably pure silver (for price reasons, I use the KImber 8TC for LS which is copper and not really solid-core [8 strands]).
Gives a dynamic detailed sound with smooth treble, but use cheaper components and you'll hear it in the treble, in that case you'll be better of with multistranded pvc-insulated copper.