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Mixing Silver and Copper cables -- Good or bad??

I have heard from a highly respected retailer that mixing silver interconnects with copper speaker cables is bad -- that you can actually hear the problems at the interface where it switches from silver to copper or vice versa. (what about the copper and/or silver wiring in the amplifier, wouldn't that have an effect as well?) he said one should use all copper or all silver throughtout the system. Is this right? Or is there a balalnce to be had? If a silver IC is noticably superior to a copper one, would that advantage be worth more than the problem casued by the silver IC to copper speaker cable interface in the system?

Finally, if you are bi-wiring or bi-amping a set of speakers, I have heard it could make sense to run silver on the top, and heavier copper on the bottom. Is this correct? Or, as the retailer would suggest, that mixing silver wires with copper wires is the overwhelming no-no?

What has been people's experience mixing silver IC's with copper speaker cables (or vice versa!)? What about silver on the high and copper on the low in bi-wire or bi-amp set-ups? What does theory, practice and experimentation tell us about this?
lotusm50
winoguy17
1,110 posts
 
Find a new "highly respected " dealer, as I wouldnt trust any of this ones "advice"
piezo
304 posts
 
using harmonic technology cables i found the best sound with thr copper Truth Link from the CDP and the hybrid coper/silver Pro silway II between the amp and preamp. With the silver from the CDP it was a bit glaring. All coppeer is good too but there is a loss of openness and air
psychicanimal
1,738 posts
 
I use OFC Absolute Power Cords, Phoenix Gold single crystal copper interconnects, Sceptor silver content coaxial for my DAC hookup and silver plated OFC speaker wire with no problems. My system is sounding open, live and relatively fatigue free...

Amen.
bear
141 posts
 
The general wisdom on Silver (tinkly top) vs. Copper (fuller, but not as clear) sound is usually correct, as far as it goes.

There is NO transition between the two cables used in the same system, since they don't physically touch. The dealer may have been trying to say something like I say on my website, which is when you use a cable that is actually cleaner than another, you'll hear ONLY the *less clean* cable!

Some people try to use a silver and a copper cable to get a balanced sound. I feel that this is generally NOT a good idea, but with most silver cables, it might be the only choice you have (in an otherwise relatively neutral system) to get a tonal balance that is about right.

When I first came out with Silver Lighting interconnects, (over 10 years now) I found that the nice part of silver was great, but it always seemed to have a deficit in the lower mids and bass. So, I developed Silver Lightning and found a way to solve the tonal balance issue in silver and still preserve the benefits of that "silver sound."

One should be careful when comparing cables to understand that in *majority* the differences between cables are due to
the *physical geometry* being different - so comparisons between silver and copper are best done with otherwise identical cables! This is tough to do for most people, but keep this in mind when listening. The secondary factors are then the materials and the connectors, if all other things are equal.
psychicanimal
1,738 posts
 
Actually, in my system the silver plated speaker wire made the bass less boomy and deeper. Whas it the copper alone or the silver or what? I paid $10 for each 16 ga.-25 ft roll, so dollar for dollar that can't be beat...
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