“I think that no audio component that does less gets written about more than speaker cables and interconnects. A visit to the AudioQuest web site will confirm this. In the preparation of this review I downloaded 30 pages of cable theory and physical descriptions, with dozens of names and their acronyms. And this is just to describe something that gets an audio signal from one place to another. After reading all this stuff it starts to become like mythology.”

“Back when I was a kid, and long before I was foolish enough to spend my money on things like audio equipment and records, I blew my not-so-hard earned allowance on more practical things, like candy. One of my favorites was a wide, but very flat and thin, corrugated strip of licorice which came in an array of day-glo colours. While aimed at much older kids with much more substantial allowances, Nordost Flatline SPM speaker cable is essentially licorice for audiophiles.”

“In recent years more science has been applied to the design of both interconnect and speaker cables, though this has been exceeded only by the secrecy with which the science has been used. Hence, rather than a detailed description of the materials and design topography of this Select cable, we get in the brochure just a few words, followed by praise from a dealer: “All [Select] loudspeaker cables utilize our proprietary X38R core compound. This compound possesses unique acoustic damping and electrical properties….”