Silver-plated or single metal IC's?

Most of what any of us say is baloney at the end of the day. You must try before you buy...and try alot for an extended period of time..as in day or weeks if possible. One last comment on silver cables however...ever been to Boston Symphony Hall? The sound is rich, warm, textured and sparkling like fine china (not broken dollar store glass). The live sound envelopes you with layers of auditory colors and tones..bass huge and deep, mids gloriously robust and full with power...smoothness is an understatement. Silver cables or flat line cables do not sound like music...closer to nails on a chalk board perhaps!

My cables are all sliver and silver alloy and they are anything but nails on a chalk board- definitely "try before you buy"- good advise.

hi leica man:

perhaps you could inform me what silver cable you are using that you feel is not fatiguing. is it possible that these cables are euphonic and a band aid for poor recordings ?

i am currently evaluating an expensive cable. before making a decision, i may want to evaluate the cables you are using.

thanks

Leica man, what cables and what system? Music?

Some of the best cables I have had in my system are (not listed in order of preference):

1. CRL/FIM Silver - these are actually high purity solid core copper designed by Paul Weitzel originally for FIM (not the current CRL brand being marketed). They are not flexible so will require careful pre-molding to fit in your system, but they are quite musical. I use the power cords in my system and have a pair of the speaker cables as a spare set.

2. Ridge Street Audio Designs Poiema!!! - solid silver and some of the smoothest cables I have ever heard. I have also hear Roberts Alethias Cu speaker cables which use solid core copper and these are excellent as well.

3. Purist Audio Design Venustas - enough said about these already and Albert Porter is the best source of information on them. These are currently used in my system between phono stage and preamp.

4. Gabriel Gold Revelation - sold here on Audiogon and a combination copper/silver/gold alloy. Well designed and a fine sounding cable in my system.

5. Alpha Core Goertz MI-2 Veracity - solid core flat design and IMO the best bang for the buck speaker cable out there.

6. Mosaic Chimera - stranded copper using a Litz geometry and other proprietary design concepts by Dale Pitcher at Intuitive Audio Design. These are currently my reference and I use 2 pairs of ICs and speaker cables. Pricey, sure they are, but well worth an audition at 30 days risk free.

My point in all this is that while the metal used is important, there are other design factors that will affect the end result. While I tend to prefer copper designs, I have definitely heard some very nice cables using other metals in their designs. I also feel the connectors are equally important. Bocchino are the best IMO, but I also like the Eichmann copper.