Difference in sound between copper and silver digital cables?

The differences/advantages of copper and silver are much more obvious AFTER they’ve been burned in and AFTER they’ve been cryo’d. All cables should be determined to be in the correct direction, too. Otherwise, it’s like shooting blanks in the dark. 

@maxima95 - I have only tried this for SPDIF cables up to 2 meters long. Others have tried it for SPDIF up to 3 meters long.

AES3 (also known as AES/EBU) is a standard for the exchange of digital audio signals between professional audio devices.

I have only tried Helix cables up to and including 24/192 for SPDIF cables between a USB interface into a 24/192 DAC

I do not know what sample rates Professional Audio Devices work at, but I would have to assume sample rates much higher.

I would think that the Mundorf XLR style cable would be able to support much higher rates, but to date nobody has tried that design in the digital realm.

Duelund is very good for analogue, but that has more to do with the cotton/oil insulation.

Before spending lots on the Mundorf wire - I would try using the cryo-treated...
- the 24 gauge silver plated Mil-spec wire/Teflon for the signal
- and 20 gauge silver plated Mil-spec for the neutral

Also, I would increase the ratio of neutral:signal to 4:1 or even 5:1 to increase Helix coverage for higher sample rates

Other reasons for trying the lighter gauge mil-spec in place of 20 gauge Mundorf or Duelund
- smaller gauge wires are less prone to RFI/EMI - I just tried a 28 gauge wire for a phono cable I am prototyping and the hum significantly reduced as the gauge got smaller - I compared it to using the 20 gauge Duelund, signal wire which hummed a lot.
- also, early tests of the RCA plugs revealed that using the higher grade Pure Harmony and Absolute Harmony plugs (which have better IACS ratings, provided no additional benefits over the lower grade Silver harmony RCA,
when used for SPDIF cables.

I have not personally tries any XLR connectors either, so I cannot recommend a specific type or brand
- based on my experience with other connectors I would have to assume silver plated copper pins would offer the best results

Sorry I could not provide better info, but I stopped using/developing SPDIF three years ago when I replaced my USB-DAC setup with a all-in-one Ethernet streaming device.

The photo’s of the XLR cables are analogue cables and courtessey of a fellow DIYer in Bulgaria that developed them and reported extremely good sound quality.

I hope that helps - Steve

I read of willie’s experience in builds and tests.

I’ve done the same, of course, as we at Teo --build cables.

Geometry becomes the 3d complex field, and the cable itself is dealing with the delineation of the transient edges (square wave edge delineation) as being the entire reason the cable exists.

Transient impedance behavior becomes the whole darned thing. (same for any cable or conditioner or audio device, BTW)

So ... proper geometry and proper implementation of said geometry becomes the overriding factor that determines the heard or realized sound quality of the given digital s/pdif cable.

This can happen at high prices or at low ones. Cable materials count, geometry counts, RCA jacks count, termination in the device pair counts. And so on.

We happen to think our RCA terminated S/pdif is the best of any available, mostly due to the liquid metal’s behavior under complex transient loading. It is fundamentally different than the transient LCR behavior of wire. So different it is...that, in our experience and that of our customer base...where.. under any possible combination of dac and transport(source), that ours will exceed the performance of any other cable.

Science! (and fundamental physics, of course)

Steve - Thank you for the information and explanation.

I have some Furutech  FP-601 M (G) and FP-602 F (G) XLR connectors to use for an AES/EBU digital cable.