speaker wire blind test

[Windstorm]

Seeing the amount of debate concerning the benefits of upgrading speaker wire, I did a blind test on my roommates while upgrading mine. I set up two sats right beside each other, one with the standard wire and 1/8 minijack (the long wire for the rears), the other with 40ft of 16 gauge oxygen free soldered directly to the speaker. I then had them listen to music for 20 minutes while I switched the sats around. Here is what they said:

Roommate 1 said the stock wire had a more "stereo" sound to it. I don't know what this means since only one sat was playing at a time, but from what he said it sounded like there was *slightly* more reverb with the standard wire. With about half of the songs I played he couldn't tell a difference at all.

Roommate 2 was able to hear a difference after about 10 minutes of listening. She described the thick wire as being "less trebly" than the standard, and "sounding better" in general. After about 15 minutes she could pick which wire was being used, most of the time.

Also keep in mind that I did not compare 40ft of 16 gauge to 40ft of standard cable which I previously had going to the rear speakers. I think the differences would have been more pronounced with the longer length of standard cable.

Personally I do hear a difference with the new wires - I can pick out more detail in the individual sounds I hear. The rear sats particularly sound better. When I first got my pros I heard sounds in music which I never heard before, after the wire upgrade I hear yet more new sounds. I don't know if it's because I am listening more intently with hopes of hearing a difference? From what my roommates said it seems there is a physical difference. I would recommend a wire upgrade to anyone thinking about it, especially if you have long wires like I had.

The speaker wire cost me $20 Canadian for 2 spools of 50 feet. That's about 13 cents US per foot.

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