Silver Speaker Cables

I had the Ag-over-Cu NORDOST FREY thin ribbon cables array. As I changed speakers, the migration to all-Cu commenced …, the preferred metal option is intuitively system dependent .

However, ….

Curiously as I swapped in the comparatively hefty CARDAS CLEAR ICs and CLEAR REFLECTION speaker cables, the highlights in the following published guidance rang true for my system. The speaker wire diameter mattered significantly, not just the choice of metal.

AUDIO: SPEAKER CABLES - From Alan Shaw (owner and designer of HARBETH)

” … So, the moral of the story is this: the most important factor of the loudspeaker cable that you should select is the amount of metal in the cable core. More metal means lower resistance.

If the core is round (as most are) then the correlation is simple: the fatter the diameter of the metal core the better because the electrical resistance between amp and speaker will be lower.

Thin and really thin cores should be avoided regardless of how exotic the metal material is claimed as the lack of metal in the core conductor will increase resistance. That will reduce amplifier damping, effect the frequency response of the speaker and give unpredictable results that will vary from amp/speaker combination.

Do not be fooled by the diameter of the external plastic sheath: what matters is the metal content of the core. The more the better, without exception….”

My take: I haven’t seen many hefty and quality- build silver cables because of the costs. I’m not knocking NORDOST, in their premium lines ( I had them in my prior system as a fine shotgunned speaker cable ) . However , I had less than satisfying results in their lower model lines where metal content was reduced .

Go figger.

@akg_ca the Alan Shaw extract is interesting, and brings to mind the speaker cables I bought from NRG Custom Cables in Canada.

Nawaz who owns the company seems to follow a similar philosophy; the more metal/conductor, the better. I've had his 6:6 copper speaker cables in my system for a few months, boy are they heavy/thick, and were a marked improvement over previous Atlas SCs. I won't go on as this thread is focused on silver 👍😊

@akg_ca 

+1. Nordost makes some of the most amazing cables. I agree, at the high end they are amazing… but much less impressive at the low end… I made this observation as well.

My experience with both speaker and interconnect cables is that they can make a big difference, in fact can be the most cost effective system upgrade money you can spend, dwarfing the cost effectiveness of upgrading electronics (which I've done plenty of).  If someone's ears hear differently, so be it, although I don't see the logic in telling others how their ears should hear or that they are fools because of how their ears hear.  As for solid silver vs solid copper vs a mixture, I have had all and have been impressed with all (in varying degrees and combinations).  So, rather than coming down clearly on the side of one or the other, I feel that other factors, like the overall quality of design, material, construction and manufacturer, application, other equipment, etc., i.e. what others have cited above, all go into making a decision. 

Jim Heckman

@jimski : great post. Spot on!