TL;DR: A sensible cable budget is roughly 10 to 15 percent of your total system cost, though this is a guideline rather than a rule. Cables will not transform a poor system, but a well-chosen set genuinely lets your existing components perform closer to their potential. This guide covers what actually matters, realistic spending tiers, and our honest recommendations from the Chord Company ranges we sell at Expressive Audio.
Cables are the most argued-about subject in HiFi, and for good reason. Unlike an amplifier or a turntable, you cannot point to a single obvious spec that tells you whether a cable is doing its job well. That ambiguity has led to two extremes: people who believe cables make no difference at all, and people who believe spending more always means hearing more. Neither extreme is particularly useful, and the truth sits somewhere more practical in between.
We get asked about cable budgets often, so here is our honest take.
Why Cables Matter at All
A cable's job is to carry a signal from one point to another with as little interference, resistance, and noise as possible. At a basic level, almost any cable will do this adequately. Where things become more interesting is in how a cable manages high-frequency noise, how its conductor geometry affects timing and detail, and how consistently it performs under real-world conditions rather than in a lab.
Chord Company's Tuned ARAY conductor technology is a good example of this in practice. Rather than relying purely on better materials, ARAY geometry is specifically designed to manage the way high-frequency noise interacts with the audio signal, which in turn affects the timing and micro-dynamics that give music its sense of rhythm and life. This is the kind of improvement that is genuinely audible on a revealing system, even if it does not show up as a dramatic number on a spec sheet.
The honest caveat: the better your system, the more a cable upgrade tends to matter. On a basic all-in-one system, cable choice will make very little audible difference. On a more resolving setup, the differences become easier to hear.
A Sensible Way to Think About Budget
There is no universal formula, but a commonly used and reasonable guideline is to spend somewhere between 10 and 15 percent of your total system value on cabling, spread across speaker cables and interconnects. This is not a hard rule, and it is one you should feel free to ignore if your priorities differ. But it gives you a sensible starting point rather than guessing.
A system worth £1,000 might reasonably have £100 to £150 spent on cables. A system worth £5,000 might justify £500 to £750. The key principle underneath this guideline is proportionality: an expensive cable on a budget system is rarely the best use of money, and a cheap cable on a high-end system is likely to be a genuine bottleneck.
Entry-Level Cabling: Getting the Basics Right
If you are just starting out, or building a modest first system, the goal is simply to avoid anything actively holding your system back. You do not need to spend a fortune here, but it is worth moving beyond the absolute cheapest unbranded options.
Chord C-ScreenX Speaker Cable
This is the genuine entry point into proper, shielded Chord speaker cable, and it represents real value at the price. C-ScreenX uses high purity oxygen-free copper conductors in a twisted-pair configuration, with a foil shield to combat interference, all wrapped in a slim, flexible white jacket that is easy to route around skirting boards. It brings a meaningful step up over basic bundled cable without asking you to spend more than a first system warrants. It is sold per metre, off the reel, and we will terminate it for you in our Lincolnshire showroom with your choice of connectors.
Good for: First systems, or anyone replacing basic bundled cables with something that has had real engineering put into it, on a genuinely tight budget.
Chord C-Line Analogue RCA and Chord C-Digital RCA
For analogue and digital connections at the entry level, C-Line and C-Digital cover the basics sensibly without overspending. C-Line is a good first step up for connecting a turntable or CD player to an amplifier, while C-Digital handles a coaxial digital connection from a CD player, streamer, or DAC cleanly and without fuss.
Good for: Source-to-amplifier connections on a modest first-system budget.
Mid-Range Cabling: Where Most Systems Sit
This is the tier where most established two-channel systems land, and where the proportionality principle really starts to pay off.
Chord ShawlineX Speaker Cable
A genuinely sensible mid-range speaker cable, and one of the most popular in Chord's entire range. ShawlineX is based on the long-running Chord RumourX conductor, now updated with a refined PVC internal jacket for reduced mechanical noise and the same dual-layer foil and braid shielding used on Chord's higher Epic range. It is sold per metre, off the reel, and we will terminate it for you in our Lincolnshire showroom with your choice of connectors.
Good for: An established mid-range system where you want a clear step up from entry-level cable without moving into the higher-end tiers.
Chord EpicX Speaker Cable
Sitting just above ShawlineX, EpicX has been part of Chord's range for many years and works well with a broad span of speakers, from mid-price to genuinely high-end. It uses the same conductors found in Chord's Odyssey range, with shielding adapted from their Signature cable, bringing improvements right across the frequency range along with better separation between instruments.
Good for: Listeners who want to push a little further than ShawlineX without committing to the built-to-order EpicXL tier.
Chord Shawline Power Chord Mains Cable
A high-specification mains cable, hand-built and tested in the UK, using thick stranded copper conductors and a redesigned high-gauge braid shield. It is fitted with a 13-amp fuse and designed specifically for HiFi components.
Good for: Anyone running a mid-range amplifier or streamer who wants a meaningful step up from the stock cable that came in the box.
Chord Shawline Digital RCA/BNC Cable
A sensible mid-tier digital interconnect for connecting a DAC, streamer, or CD player to an amplifier, using Chord's ChorAlloy plated connectors for a more stable, lower-resistance contact than standard plating.
Good for: Mid-range digital sources where you want to hear more of what your DAC is actually capable of.
Higher-End Cabling: For Resolving Systems
If your system is genuinely resolving, meaning it can reveal small differences in source quality, this is where cable choice becomes more clearly audible and worth the additional investment.
Chord EpicXL Speaker Cable
EpicXL combines elements of Chord's Epic and Signature Reference/XL speaker cables, and represents a genuine step up in resolution. Each set is built to order at Chord's UK factory, with separately shielded positive and negative conductors that bring a more refined, musically coherent presentation than cable using a single shared shield. It carries micro-dynamics and detail with real precision, and brings noticeably better separation and definition to instruments and voices. Hi-Fi World rated it five stars, describing it as "outstanding, amongst the best."
Good for: Established systems with genuinely resolving electronics and speakers, where you want the cable to stop being the limiting factor.
Chord SignatureXL Speaker Cable
The flagship of Chord's dedicated speaker cable range, and the result of two decades of continuous refinement since the original Signature launched in 2004. SignatureXL uses individually shielded positive and negative conductors with a high-density foil and 95 percent coverage metal braid, built to order and hand-terminated at Chord's UK factory. Reviewers have praised it for extracting the last bit of quality and musicality from an already well-resolving system.
Good for: High-end systems where every other component has already been carefully chosen, and you want the absolute best Chord's speaker cable range can offer.
Chord Epic Digital RCA/BNC Cable
Epic sits above Shawline in Chord's digital cable range and is designed to offer genuine neutrality alongside high levels of detail retrieval, without losing the musical coherence that some highly analytical cables can sacrifice. It is a noticeable step up for digital connections on a system where the source components themselves are capable of real resolution.
Good for: Established systems with a quality DAC or CD player, where you want the cable to stop being the limiting factor.
Chord EpicX Analogue RCA Cable
For analogue connections, particularly between a turntable and a phono stage, or a phono stage and an amplifier, Chord's Epic interconnect offers the same musical coherence and neutrality as the Epic digital range, translated into the analogue domain.
Good for: Vinyl-focused systems where the interconnect between turntable, phono stage, and amplifier deserves the same attention as the speaker cable.
A Note on Power Cables and Mains
Power cables tend to divide opinion more than any other category. The honest position is that a well-built power cable, like the Chord Shawline Power Chord, can genuinely help with noise rejection, particularly in homes with electrically noisy environments or where multiple components share a single circuit. It is not the first place we would direct spending on a new system, but for an established system where everything else has already been addressed, it is a reasonable next step.
Conclusion
The honest answer to "how much should you spend on cables" is: enough that your cabling is not the weakest link in your system, but not so much that it becomes disproportionate to everything else you own. Start with sensible, well-engineered options like Chord C-ScreenX or C-Line if you are building a first system, move to ShawlineX or EpicX as your system grows, and consider stepping up to EpicXL or SignatureXL as your system and your ear for detail develop further.
If you are unsure where to start, come and talk to us. We have demonstration cables at our Lincolnshire showroom and can talk you through what is likely to make a genuine difference on your specific system, rather than simply recommending the most expensive option. Call us on 01507 499047 or browse the full cable range at Expressive Audio.
