My experience is they are harsh and bright. I thought they added detail-at first- but it was just different sound, after enough listening it was appearant that it did unusual thing to the upper frequences- which I am told are good if you are using SET amps. Some prefer the silver sound I just felt that it didn't sound like 'real' music and that is what I am trying to accomplish with my rig- the reproduction of the original recording and I didn't feel that silver was helping me get any closer to my goal. I tried a few silver cables and they are all the same(essentially), one day I put an old copper cable I had back in and haven't looked back, so much more relaxing and laid back, to me silver sounds uptight. ~Tim |
Silver cabling is no different than any other "component" in a system. Some work, some don't and some are up to personal tastes. I've found that some silver cables sound far more "edgy" than others, even after running them on my cable burner for extended periods of time. Like anything else, it is a matter of putting the component to test in your system and seeing what you think. If something sounds horrible, it probably always will ( within the confines of that system or specific use ). Sean
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I personally don't care for pure silver cables, in my system they are too bright. I do however love hybrid cable, copper and silver, with my current set-up these sound the best. I use Kimber Select KS-3035 speaker cables and Straightwire Crescendo IC's. I have not yet tried a silver power cable, maybe one of these days I will. In my opinion hybrids are the way to go, the best of both worlds... |
Equiptment & reason!
Speakers--NEAR M15's\M50's
Amp--B&K Mod. ST-202
Pre--Rotel RC960
SS Pre--Lexicon CP3 Plus
The reason I am going to try Silve ris because I have heard that it works well with NEAR's ,so I thought I would give it a shot.I will try DIY first tehn I might opt to upgrade it to better quality If the diff is significant!
Thanx! |
Silver works in my system, I use Kimber kcag and kctg. Smooth and extremely transparant. I've never used silver speaker cables. My system prob. leans towards warm with a tube cj preamp - I like copper too, however, silver in the right system is so much faster, airy, transparant, with tight bass and no bloat. I also get a more "you are there" sense with human voice." Now if your system is on the lean side then silver might not work anywhere. just my .02 |
It's something other than the silver per se. I used to use AQ Diamond and Lapis (silver hyperlitz) cables and found them warm, mellow, and laid-back -- too much so, in fact. |
I am in agreement with most of the above. In my own experiance, silver speaker cables do not work well in my Home Theatre, due I think, to the metal tweeters in my Def Tech's. However, I use silver/copper hybreds exclusively with my Talon Audio Speakers and find it to be much more detailed than just copper. The same is true for silver hybred interconnects between my transport & DAC. |
I also was lookig for silver speaker cables and found that the really good ones are very very expensive. I ended up speaking with Bob Crump and he was very helpful in his opinion of why silver sounds bright and what he does to his cables to eliminate this. Haven't made a move yet but you may want to give Bob a call or email him. |
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Silver cables tend to be more sensitive to gauge than copper. I stick with smaller gauges because the larger gauges sound harsh. I also only use them for IC's, not speaker cables. |
I recall buying about 5 figures worth of 16ga 99.99 silver wire, custom printed heatshrink and connectors and then at about 42 days of 24/7, but maybe 5 hours of normal listening levels a day the speaker wire started to break windows from two blocks away, sinking ships and scraping the wall paper off the walls in the upper midrange....I then spent six months figuring out how to configure and break the stuff in so it wouldn't do this as that sort of investment could not be regained selling the stuff off as clothes line....Without getting into specifics the bottom line is that silver needs to be put into a situation wherein it is run hard and put away wet well past what it will ever see on a musical peak or it will be bright on those peaks.... |
I have never liked all silver until recently. First of all it should be cooked on a cable cooker for a long time.
I have used Valhalla on everything in my reference system including the digital cable. I just tired the Acoustic Zen Silver Reference and was pleasantly surprised. I didn't like last years AZ and told Robert as much. He sent me this cable to get my opinion since I had told so honestly what I thought of the previous versions. Bright in the upper mid's and noisy. No more! beautiful detail and very musical. Well done Robert Lee. |
That is a good story!LOL
Do not know how I will burn them in as you did.Maybe I will try using an Amp with a resistor hooked up to the end of the run for a few weeks continuous! |
Lawrencegrac@msn.com you got it....Need some 225w 8r load resistors and a cheap 100wpc receiver, put it on a rock station, measure 4v av. out at the resistors and go away for a month.....Put a fan on the receiver as it will get hot......I do something else as well, but can't give it all away....... |
Send them to me and I will be happy to cook them for you Lawrence at no charge. |
I'm using Audioquest Diamonds from Dac to Preamp, and they've sounded better than anything else I've tried including most of the HT line. I have solid state amp
Bryston B60. But I did use copper from preamp to amp, a pair of XLO Type 1. I've read a some reviewers at Soundstage that concurr that this mix of silver and copper sometimes works (silver from the source component and copper from preamp to amp). I've never found silver to sound too bright or hard, but it does seem that there are differences in silver interconnects. AQ Diamond X3 can be had used for pretty cheap these days so it's certainly worth a try. |
Very limited experience here;nevertheless, I will share.
I used AQ Argents, half copper half silver, with Alphacore AG interconnects when using solid state amp, Aragon 8002. But I prefer AQ Midnights with Monster Ref. 2 copper cables with Audio Research integrated amp. |
I have used silver cables from Nordost, Silver Audio, Harmonic Tech, Pure Note, Siltech, and more. In most cases silver cables are fast, precise, and smooth. Some brands are better than others like Siltech and Pure Note. No matter the claims, it is the overall cable design that matters not the wire alone IMO. |
