Copper for Solid State / Silver for Tubes ?

Hi Shak73; ICs and speaker cables are equally important, IMO, and either can be "colored" in a way that you either like or dislike. Most try to keep their systems neutal (accurate?), but I doubt that true neutrality is even possible, ie it's a subjective thing-- still, it's a goal.

What is neutral sounding to me may not be to you. And what is the standard for "neutral"?-- some say it's live music, but it's very hard to translate the sound from a live performance to that in your own stereo system and room-- again,IMO . Any wire in the system can cause colorations, including power cords. And in the last couple years I've come to realize that AC wall receptacles have their own sonic characteristics and are thus important in a good high end system.

I would have a tendency to agree with your premise, but only as a GENERALITY. I have a tube pre-amp and SS amp, and use hybrid copper/silver ICs and all copper speaker cables-- works for me! Cheers. Craig

Here is the only GOLDEN RULE for cabling - "If it sounds right to you, then it's the right cable." Only you're own empirical data can decide what works best. Erik

Golden rule must be to use Siltech which has gold alloy in the cables also, HA!! I guess I agree generally, but as Creeper sais; trust your own ears.

I don't know about silver interconnects with SS preamps and amps, but I can tell you that I really like silver interconnects between a SS CD Player (Arcam FMJ CD23) and a ARC CA50 Integrated Tube Amp. It is the best I've heard so far, and that includes some of the better copper interconnects.
That one interconnect introduced into my system made a significant difference ... increased focus and definition ... increased transparency ... and increased stage width ... and incredibly quite background!
I've got a gold interconnect coming just so that I can see what gold can do with the silver. It should be interesting.
If you have apprehension about silver with all SS, I would try the gold. And the most affordable that I know of is the individual who made my silver interconnect. He is making an amazing product for whatever the price ... but, with his price, it is a fantastic deal!
You can reach Ray at:
ray_valentine92620@yahoo.com
If you try his cables, I would like to hear from you. I've been at this for a long time, and I think he is a real unsung surprise in audio. He is just a one man operation ... so his overhead is low.

Frankly there's not one thing the "reputable cable salesperson"(an oxymoron?) said that I agree with. They are all gross generalizations that may or may not hold true for your system and/or tastes. Personally I've heard bigger and more meaningful changes with interconnects than speaker cable, but that could just be a function of the cables I tried or my system or both. I guess my point would be that with cables there are absolutely no absolutes(how 'bout that?) and there's no getting around the fact that you have to try different combinations in your system to see what works for YOU. The good news is that cables are easy/cheap to transport and most cable companies or dealers will let you demo them risk free(less shipping if applicable), so your biggest costs are time and effort--but isn't that the fun part?

My advice would be to try everything you can--you'll learn a lot and you'll find the cables that really do it for you. Particularly with cables you should avoid any "one size fits all" generalizations and just go by your own ears. Best of luck.

Tim