Why does the gauge of speaker wire matter? Options

[mkop]

I've read some things discussing speaker wiring such as speaker reviews and their is always something like "the included cables are ok but you'll probably want to go and get something thicker." My question is why do I want some huge python of a cable? And what principles are used to decide what size is big enough?

[TwoJ]

However, I noted an interesting thing - everyone is obsessed with the cable alone and completely ignoring the enviroment. I think this is wrong, based on this previous experience:

The topic was started on wires not enviroment, and I don't believe people have been obsessed with cables (no one is saying "buy mostercables or you might as well not listen to music")

A digtial signal is a digital signal

- Although it should be the case - I can tell you that in practice it is not always that way. Prime example was my last MB which was getting random data errors from the VIA chipset - because of what i guess was interference the digital data was getting corrupted.
There are quite a few reasons I can think of why your optical transmission sounded worse than the coax but I doubt it has to do with the actual transmission of data. I remember some early designs would actually have a DAC from the CD player and then a ADC to the optical out - and conversly on the reciever another DAC. So the signal goes through 2 stages of unnecessary quantization which doesn't help in keeping the origianal signal. There was also promblems with optical out of different manufacturers that would overdrive the sensors which caused considerable errors in transmission and reception. But I'd say the problem was with one or both units and not the "enviroment" in that case.

1) corrorosion is a problem, there is another niche market that deals with terminators that reduce the amount of corrosion that the ends will experience, also for certain countries like Japan, where there is a high humidity in the air, they will plate the conductors with metals such as gold which are more resistant to corrosion. But a normal interior should not have a problem for at least a few years and yet if you do notice that the wires are getting corroded then just snip off enough wire to get back to non-corroded copper.

2) the cable path should be intelligently laid out; Don't run it near mains line which could affect a 50/60Hz hum into the speakers, the cables lying in a coil is not that big an issue but it is more important that you keep the legnth of the wire to the speakers from the amp as short as necessary- an said before the longer the cable the more resistance and hense the signal is degraded more. As for the cable from the TV or satellite these use the stardard coax cable which by designis suppose to eliminate EM radiation outside of the cable so they should not affect your speaker cable