Speaker cables

I'm basically happy with my hi-fi set up:
STD turntable / Hadcock unipivot Mk.1 arm / Ortofon 2M Bronze cartridge / Harbeth HL Monitor Mk.2 speakers / digital stuff going through a Chord Mojo - but I've become increasingly concerned to get maximum clarity and soundstage out of it all.  I'm mightily impressed by reviews of Graham's phono pre-amps and hoping (as I await a delivery for trial) that it will make the sought-after improvement.  But - here's the bit that I'd welcome comments on - I'd had a baffling exchange elsewhere when I enquired about speaker cables...!

The claims made for proprietory speaker cables sound fantastic - and hard to believe!  I currently use fairly thick, multi-strand paired runs, held apart in a parallel formation in a plastic strip.  Basically vanilla.  Will branded cables REALLY make much difference, I wondered.

A certain hi-fi shop (not a million miles away, as they say) astonished me by saying there was no point in considering new cables until I'd got new speaker stands: implying, I guess, that new speaker stands would make even more improvement than new cables.  This seems even harder to believe!  My existing speaker cables are of the 'open platform' type, supporting the speaker on two edges, topped with acoustically-absorbent material.  The certain hi-fi shop owner seemed horrified that the stands were on castors - but it's surely obvious that the speakers themselves are virtually surrounded by air and almost no vibration would reach the castors. 

This has weighed on my mind!  Any informed comment would be welcome

Aussie Mick wrote: ...     Everything makes a difference, sometimes a difference younlike and sometimes not. Room treatments and speaker stands can make a bigger difference than speaker cables at times, [...] So, cables will make a difference, even if only as a form on tone control, but my experience is that cables made audible differences to clarity and detail, and hence soundstage. Having said that, my current speakers have been on two sets of stands, and set one sounded comprehensively better than the other. Bass depth, midrange clarity and treble extension were easily superior. [...] Mick.

Wow.  I'm amazed, but I believe you!  I guess the question remains as to whether branded cables are likely to be clearly superior to the 'ordinary' big parallel wires that I currently use.  I agree that the ultimate proof of the pudding lies in a home test, but would you (and the other experienced ears around here) really think it likely that even Graham's speaker cables could significantly improve clarity, detail and soundstage beyond the current set-up?  I've just measured the width of my current cables, btw, and find that the insulation holds the two cores 1cm apart, so there won't be much capacitance effect.  Or (gulp) would there? !

You're also making the assumption (I think) that thicker cable is better. There seem to be so many variables! I tend to think of it more as, "I fundamentally enjoy what my system does, but in my room there's too much bass", and then think about why. Is it speaker placement or room dimensions or is it a warm and fat sounding system in a room that's too small? In that scenario, a cable that isn't "accurate" but is bass shy might actually give me a much better result IN MY SYSTEM. Room treatment might be another option, or moving rooms, or changing the speakers, etc.
Which route do you take? I use Slee cables in my primary system and they do the job I need them to do. However, I use a different brand in the TV system and they do the right job there. If I swap cables around my primary system suffers and my TV system gets a bit of glare. The old system matching chestnut?

There's no substitute for listening in your own home with your own gear. Here in Australia there some dealers happy for you to take demo gear for a few days with a credit card swipe. Do you have that option for trying the other speaker stands?
Mick.

Thanks greatly for all these comments.  I think I'm convinced anew that proprietory cables will probably be better than my unbranded 'parallel vanilla', but it appears necessary to do a lot of in situ testing to settle on what sounds best.

I think my scepticism was in the taken-for-granted thought that the 'active' components in the system (e.g. cartridge, amp, speakers) are what really determine the sound experience, while the 'passive' elements (interconnects at all stages up to the speaker terminals) introduce relatively minor tweaks.  I'm changing my mind slightly!  I see that, in a sense, there is an active aspect to speaker cables - primarily towards degrading the sound in subtle ways.

Which just leaves that (rather extreme) comment from the hi-fi shop 'not a million miles away' that there'd be no point in getting speaker cables before changing my speaker stands.  As I said in the first post, these are of the open platform type, firmly supporting the speakers at the edge, with acoustically absorbent material between.  Now, what the blenge is so wrong with these speaker stands?!