Silver Speaker Cables

JasonBourne52,

as usual you’re an idiot

I think the same all the time about this sad human, although I never dare to say it. I refuse to say it. 😉

Yes there are budget silver cables.

The issue can be that cheap silver cables can be unflatteringly revealing on your components. The better the silver cables the less harsh they are.

So my first question is what is your system. There is a place under your UserID (click around) to put photos and identify your system. This would be extremely helpful to us… allowing us to help you.

In general: copper is warm and covers up harshness in inexpensive components. Silver coated copper can help reveal detail without giving up bass. Finally silver can be fast and detailed… but harsh and light on the bass. This is for budget cables.

Even for fairly good systems silver can be really bad. Now, high end, the materials become less important as techniques of using dielectric coatings, geometry, and strand size and mixtures of filaments effect the sound.

Having said all this. If you want to try, my go-to budget brand is DHLabs Silver Sonic.

So if your system is warm… and you are craving greater detail._ inexpensive silver may do the trick.

I know silver can brighten interconnects and I have a little experience with silver and speaker cables.  I do have some 12 gauge, silver coated copper wires that are fantastic. I’ve had them over thirty years. To bad they are only about 6’ in length or they would be in my main system. Anyway, will pure silver brighten speaker cables? 
 

Just curious.

I have a DH Labs Silver Sonic two-meter IC from preamp to power amp. Plus five pairs of Audioquest Silver Extreme IC's. 

After experimenting with many various Audioquest silver and copper speaker cables - silver will render significantly more detail for sure. And that detail increase will be weighted more in favor of higher frequencies. But it won’t be strident, harsh, or splashy. And it doesn’t hurt bass nor body, unless you use too small a gauge - but that can be a real problem because of silver’s high cost. The cables that mix both pure silver and pure copper wires can have a lovely tonal balance. My preferences have always been either pure silver or a mix with mostly (> 50%) silver. The new prices on AQ silver cables are stratospheric. But good used deals on older silver models do come up (Wildwood, WEL Signature, Kilimanjaro, Everest, K2, Obsidian, KE-6). Sometimes REALLY good deals. Keep in mind a 6 ft pair of Everest has a POUND of high purity silver in it. 

It’s a very similar deal with the AQ interconnects, copper vs. silver. Except there are no hybrids in their IC lines. The lower end silver interconnects (Cheetah, Niagara, Wind) do have less body and weight than the higher-end silver cables.

If your system is already bordering on too bright or edgy, adding silver will definitely not help. Copper can help keep it under control. BUT better would be to resolve the balance issue in your system and then add silver cables to get the most of it :)