Choosing the right cable

[AVphile]

I cannot but help thinking that cables do not exist in and of themselves; rather, they are an integral part of an overall audio system. Now, Wireworld makes a slew of different products of increasing complexity and "fineness" with the same functionality, e.g., as interconnect cables or speaker cables.

I am under the assumption that a law of "diminishing returns" is in effect, with each upgrade step becoming less discernable until there isn't any longer a recognizable improvement in the sound at all -- based on the other components in one's audio system. So the question in my mind is, When is enough enough? Masterlu's system, for example, clearly warrants the inclusion of the Platinum 8 cabling. But let's consider instead just a somewhat above entry-level system. Wireworld offers 9 different interconnects. Which one would provide the user with the best performance/cost return? At which cable "grade" above that would that user be wasting money because either the potential improvement simply wouldn't be discernable or, if the user could strain to hear any degree of improvement in the playback of certain recordings, the cost of realizing that increment -- except for the truly wealthy -- would be absurd?

Sometimes, there are major changes in a vendor's cable offerings between one grade and the next. When deciding on my new interconnects between my preamp and power amps, I did as much research (admittedly, only online) as I could on the cables made by Wireworld. What I noticed was that, for all but their entry-level cable, the fundamental underlying architecture was essentially the same. What changed was consistently modest -- for example, the copper conductor went from oxygen-free to OCC-7N copper to that copper silver-plated, or the gauge went from 24 to 21 to 18. In total, Wireworld offers 9 different interconnect cables. At the end, I chose their Equinox 8, but my decision came from my gut -- based on its affordability (for me, given I needed three 39' lengths) and the elements of its construction (type of copper, number of wires, flexibility, etc.).

Let me add, that Masterlu initially suggested the Solstice grade cable, which would have saved me considerable money compared to what I am spending for the Equinox 8s. Moreover, he did not try to "upsell" his suggestion; I did that all by myself. My self-upsale may be an interesting statement about the audiophile nature but also critical to the survival of a number of equipment companies!

I am confident that I will be happy with what I will have gotten, for I just placed this special order yesterday. But I confess it still sort of bothers me that there wasn't any way for me to know definitively whether I made the best choice of Wireworld model let alone whether there might have been a competitive interconnect of comparable price that would have served my audio system better.