Cables: Any rules you follow?

Not going down that road, sure there are differences. But I have never come across any cable that makes enough of an improvement to warrant spending silly money.

Seen it two many times, guys throwing money at cables, trying to give their systems a boost, or in an attempt to stop it sounding like an Ice Pick. To me they are just glorified tone controls.
Differences do not necessarily mean an improvement just different that's all.
Bi wiring for the most part it is a marketing gimmick. That being said there are some speakers where it does make them sound a lot better, for example more headroom.

Usually make my own, that works fine for me. Plugs; now here is a funny one my mate whom we call the cable guy, as he is obsessed with cables.
asks me if I have some good quality bananas for him. Happened to have some expensive Furetech ones (20 Quid each) somebody gave them to me. Told him he could have them if he had some cheapies for me. So we did the deal and he gave me some reasonably priced Nagamichi's. He phones me and says those expensive ones made no difference and some of the screws stripped when he put them on. Had no issue with the Nagamichi's at all, screws went in nice and tight and they were a better tighter fit in the speaker posts. Cost about a quid each in your money

Lately I’m finding that the better the amp and speakers, the less impact cables have. Kinda the opposite I’m for what I used to believe

I always ensure that the cable is long enough to connect the things that need connecting.

A good cable regardless of what material it is made from shouldn't give you anything at all. it should allow everything that you have put together in your system to be heard without coloration or without any influence or as little influence as possible.

when you hear the likes of rg316, it is blatantly obvious that there is an effect being had by the silver coating on top of the copper coating on top of the steel. the same with silver-plated copper, there is an effect that that has, so in my opinion if you want silver you should buy good silver and if you want, you should buy good copper and if you do that you won't go far wrong.

Things were simpler early 70s.....

Captive mains leads / Patch interconnects / Bell Wire for speakers........etc

Zep, Sabbath, Purple, never sounded better though, or perhaps the passage of time has warped me head!!!!

My favourite interconnnect is Black Rhodium Polar Illuison. It has eichmann bullets fitted which I really like, too.

That said,I find the Sonneteer stuff is less fussy about cables than anything else I recall. It will tell you clearly what the differences are, but it won’t care and it will make great sound and music with pretty much everything reasonably good. I don’t want products that only sound good with certain cables. A decent product should be able to sound good with anything reasonably decent. “Diva” products are badly designed IMO.

I have some Isoda that I need to try. I just can’t be bothered because the sound I get pleases me greatly and cable differences these days seem to be the difference between fabulous and still fabulous but a little more or less so. I’m also not keen to go back to anything that uses non KLE/Eichmann plugs, because I love them so much.

Yup, you cant beat the bullet.

+1

A plug that I came across while looking through ebay the other day www.ebay.co.uk/itm/MPS-Pioneer-Gold-Plated-Pure-Copper-Audiophile-Grade-RCA-10MM-plugs-set-of-4/162726255579

I knew I'd seen them before:

￡20.51 | HiFi MPS Pioneer-8/10G HiFi Red Copper 24K Golden Plated RCA plug lotus For 8mm/10mm cable for CD DVD Amplifier DAC 1PCS
s.click.aliexpress.com/e/VSn5ry5

I’ve said it befire but some expensive plugs feel worse than normal ones.im not a fan of WBT locking plugs and I can’t stand Neutrik Profis.

+2 on WBT locking plugs, a real PITA