Preamp Deal of the Century

Opuss88,

I think many people must trip up with cables that do not sound neutral.Such cables might sound good in one system but not another-and because they sounded good in that system the assumption that they will still sound good when you try a different component is a flawed one.
I tricked myself for a while into thinking that silver cables sound good but their appeal starts to wear thin when you realise they are just imposing a forced and unnatural presentation on your system.To me this presented as a sort of glare-although on some recordings this glare is not as noticeable.To use a visual analogy it is a bit like watching TV with the brightness and colour turned up too high.

I know that Mick Maloney hates silver cable.If you want to make the guy squirm in discomfort just sit him down in front of a system with siver interconnects.
And he is right of course.These things are changing the sound in a very unnatural way-which may not be a problem in a low resolution or coloured system -but that is still not an excuse for their acceptance.

jtgofish:

that's odd that mick has such an aversion to silver cables. from what i recall, he wires the entire preamp with silver wire. i once asked him which cables he preferred to which he stated that anything over $200 for a pair is ridiculous in his opinion. i guess that's his way of staying neutral in the great cable war.

Kgtuner,
The internal wire might be silver coated copper but it is definitely not solid silver.I believe this cable is used due to its excellent soldering performance.
I once used a Glass Audio designed preamp that used solid silver internal cabling.It sounded horrible.

Hi gang. Just checking in on the thread and have not had the time to post my thoughts here in regards to the glare issues Opus and Maril are experiencing. Hopefully,I will find some time over the weekend. Jtgofish....BTW, all of the supratek preamps are wired with pure silver wire. However, your wiews on the use of silver wire for both speaker cabling and interconnects do mirror mine. Later....

Maril and Opuss,strange problem your having. I do hope you get to the bottom of it..... I have owned a pair of Quad 63s for going on twenty five years.I have had various electronics ,solid state and tube driving them over the years.It took awhile for me to discover these speakers should be in a room where they can breath along with ridid stands to elevate them off the floor.They have a spooky midrange magic that compared to speakers today,many would fall flat on their face. They are ruthless in reveiling anomalies in the midrange.Be it up stream electronics or in a recording. All these years that I have enjoyed them, I have never heard them sing like they do now....never... Partly due to a new room but mostly to a change in wire.Nordost mono filiment silver coated copper in my tone arm and to the phono section of my Chenin...The transformation was significate....The wire Im slowing replacing is Cardas Golden Reference to the amps and speakers. Over the past three years I have tried several differant complete runs of brands of wire. None of them even came close to what this mono filiment wire does. Though it works extremely well in my system ,it may not in yours.However look into it. It could very well be a wire issue. Hopefully it will do the trick.......Ecclectique,Im always interested in what you have to say.