The long and short of it all is that it boils down to the copper in the wire. the quality of the copper, the diameter and strands.
Quality - good quality virgin copper is what you want to go with. most decent speaker wire manufacturers use this.
Diameter - youre looking to use a thickness of atleast 16 gauge. the higher the gauge, the thinner it becomes. if the distance of the cable goes more than 10 feet (some say upto 50 feet), and / or if your speakers are rated at less than 8 ohms (6 or 4), you would look to use a thicker gauge - 14 or 12. again on higher end systems, youre safer with a thicker gauge wire
Strands - multi-stranded wires are better than a single strand. im not an engineer but read somewhere that the electrical signal travels along the diameter of the wire and not through it so multi strand is better. i stand to be corrected here. but the end is that multi strand is better than a single strand
Oxygen free cables - Some higher end speaker cable manufacturers claim to use oxygen free copper cable. it doesnt help the quality of sound in any way, but it does stop corrosion on the copper. speakers generally being indoors and in a controlled environment, corrosion doesnt normally become a problem for atleast 10 odd years. or more
Can you use electrical cable - yes you can. as long as the copper is good. the only difference between electrical and speaker cable is the insulation. since electric cables are meant to withstand higher temperatures due to electricity it carries, the insulation is of higher quality.
Banana plugs - the jury's out on this one. personally i prefer connecting it using bare wire. using the theory that the highest quality of gold plated / brass banana plugs cannot improve on the quality of the signal that the copper wires give it. if at all, it can maintain it at 100% or only decrease its quality. one area where plugs score is if the seals / encases the exposed end of the wire, it prevents the copper from corrosion. i've also noticed an audible difference in changing the brass jumpers connecting the highs and lows on my speakers to plain copper speaker wire.
Shielded wire - this could help in shielding from outside dirty noise. lot of debate on this one on the net - at what level of sound system do you start to hear these noises, since the waves for sound going through a cable doesnt really attract a lot of noise. and esp if your cable is isolated from other cables / appliances, it should be a problem.
Disclaimer - this is from my reading on the net and some common sense. yes, there will be some extremely high end systems on which you perhaps will be able to discern on some differences by purchasing extremely expensive cables. but on 95-99% of setups that we have, if we follow the above, we should have some good sounding speaker cables
Quality - good quality virgin copper is what you want to go with. most decent speaker wire manufacturers use this.
Diameter - youre looking to use a thickness of atleast 16 gauge. the higher the gauge, the thinner it becomes. if the distance of the cable goes more than 10 feet (some say upto 50 feet), and / or if your speakers are rated at less than 8 ohms (6 or 4), you would look to use a thicker gauge - 14 or 12. again on higher end systems, youre safer with a thicker gauge wire
Strands - multi-stranded wires are better than a single strand. im not an engineer but read somewhere that the electrical signal travels along the diameter of the wire and not through it so multi strand is better. i stand to be corrected here. but the end is that multi strand is better than a single strand
Oxygen free cables - Some higher end speaker cable manufacturers claim to use oxygen free copper cable. it doesnt help the quality of sound in any way, but it does stop corrosion on the copper. speakers generally being indoors and in a controlled environment, corrosion doesnt normally become a problem for atleast 10 odd years. or more
Can you use electrical cable - yes you can. as long as the copper is good. the only difference between electrical and speaker cable is the insulation. since electric cables are meant to withstand higher temperatures due to electricity it carries, the insulation is of higher quality.
Banana plugs - the jury's out on this one. personally i prefer connecting it using bare wire. using the theory that the highest quality of gold plated / brass banana plugs cannot improve on the quality of the signal that the copper wires give it. if at all, it can maintain it at 100% or only decrease its quality. one area where plugs score is if the seals / encases the exposed end of the wire, it prevents the copper from corrosion. i've also noticed an audible difference in changing the brass jumpers connecting the highs and lows on my speakers to plain copper speaker wire.
Shielded wire - this could help in shielding from outside dirty noise. lot of debate on this one on the net - at what level of sound system do you start to hear these noises, since the waves for sound going through a cable doesnt really attract a lot of noise. and esp if your cable is isolated from other cables / appliances, it should be a problem.
Disclaimer - this is from my reading on the net and some common sense. yes, there will be some extremely high end systems on which you perhaps will be able to discern on some differences by purchasing extremely expensive cables. but on 95-99% of setups that we have, if we follow the above, we should have some good sounding speaker cables