I just bought my first SACD player so I needed to connect the analog cables to the reciever.  I went online looking for a set and it seemed like monster cable only had one set and it only came in a six foot length and it was a higher grade cable than I would normaly buy but I said screw it even though just the cable cost about a third of what the whole damn player cost. I knew I could just buy individual regular cables and I was very close to doing that but for some reason didn't.  Oh yeah by the way I do all my shopping on the internet.  So the cable showed up yesterday and they are all individual cables.  The only cool thing about them is that they are color coded but that isn't that big of a deal and now I have a big six foot cable when i only need like a three foot if that.  I normally would have gotten maybe the 200 or 250 series.  I like good sound but do you guys think you can really hear the different between a $24 cable and a $39 cable?  I mean you can obviously hear the difference between those crappy cables that come with the equipment but once you step up to a decent cable can you really tell the difference with the cable made from unobtainuim and solid billet ends with dollar signs silkscreened in gold on the jacket?

Difference between $24 and $39 cables?? Almost nothing.

As for buying the SACD/DVD-A specific cables, the color coding is the only benefit that I can see. When I bought my universal player I just bought 3 sets of Audio Quest G-Snake cables.

I would agree with Nick. When I bought my SACD/DVD-A I bought 2 sets of $9.99 component video cables. GE or Phillips.  Nothing too fancy but thick transparent coating and tight connectors.

On the other hand, I bought some fairly expensive (for me) Cobalt Speaker Cables and I believe I heard a difference immediately.

 

in my own experience, high quality speaker wire can make a big difference.

I would have thought the better quality patch cables would make the bigger difference since you are dealing with such small voltages that can be more easily affected.  So I am using the Monster XP speaker cable that I got for free with the speakers.  Do you think those are high enough quaility that I won't notice the difference with some unabtanium cable or should I sneak into the wifes purse again?  Are you talking more about upgrading in guage from cheap lamp cord or are you talking about technical stuff like windings, cores, dialectrics and crap like that?  Its funny I like good sound and used to be a car stereo installer and had a $6000 system in my car when I was younger with all the high end stuff and I can tell the difference between crap where a lot of people I know think it sounds fine but I have a hard time distinguishing from good quality decent priced stuff to the really expensive stuff.  I would be curious to do a side by side comparision between good gauge regular wire and high dollar stuff and see if I could tell the difference.

the gauge can make a difference when you have long runs.

currently I'm using 12 awg speaker wire made by Liberty Cable. The first thing I noticed about it was how fine the individual strands were and also the number of strands. It simply looked better than any other speaker wire I had seen. It was definitely much nicer than other wire I've seen for the same price, $1 per foot.

Now, I have never done a direct comparison with Monster XP. So far as I know, XP is exellent wire. I have used some of the base grade Monster speaker wire and I didn't care much for it.

Ultimately, it comes down to whether or not you are pleased with the sound.

As Nick says. It's up to you whether or not you are happy/satisfied with the sound.

I used the Monster XP that came with my speakers to run to the rear surrounds. But, I splurged on 4M Cobalt cable Ultimate speaker wires for the fronts. I'm not posessed with Golden Ears but I could hear a difference. Maybe it's just 4 or 5 db's louder. But that also makes it sound cleaner and clearer. (to me)

Cobalt used to have a deal with Aperion. but, That's no longer the case. But they have a lifetime warrenty and a money back 90 day trial.

http://www.cobaltcable.com/index.htm