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Upgrading Speaker Cables: Wireworld Silver Eclipse or Transparent Audio Ultra?

More than 15 years ago, I bought a set of speaker cables to accompany my then brand new Revel Ultima Studios and Krell FPB amplifiers.  While I continue to adore the sound of my system, I know there have been a lot of advancements in cable technology this century.  Consequently, I believe that a [relatively] low cost upgrade would be a purchase of new speaker cables.  (I have no intent to replace either my speakers or my amplifiers at this time.)  I live in an area that is several hundred miles distant from any high end dealer, so doing a sonic audition of cables is infeasible; moreover, I could not duplicate my combination of other sources, amplifiers, interconnect cables, and power cords -- as well, of course, of my room environment.

All that being said, I have done tons of reading about speaker cables these past few months.  The result of my efforts has been to narrow down my two upgrade choices (both bi-wired) to Transparent Audio's Ultras and Wireworld Cable's Silver Eclipse.  Coincidentally, their respective MSRPs are between $50 of each other.

Ideally, I would love to read responses from other Audiogon members who have actually auditioned one cable against the other.  That is likely to be nigh unto impossible because I have been unable to identify a single dealer who carries both lines.  Consequently, I would be delighted to receive anyone's thoughts about the pluses and minuses of each individual cable.

Many thanks to all who provide their much appreciated insights!
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auxinput
2,920 posts
 
Those Revel Ultima Studios have the previous generation aluminum alloy tweeter.  These can have a bright edge due to the breakup distortion of metal domes.

The Silver Eclipse has a very heavy silver content - heavily silver clad copper conductors and silver clad spade terminations.  This can over-emphasize that bright edge of the tweeters.

The Transparent Cable, on the other hand, typically uses  pure copper conductors and gold plated terminations.  I think the Transparent will be more forgiving on that bright tweeter and could potentially sound more natural than the Silver Eclipse in your particular system.
b4icu's avatar
b4icu
558 posts
 
Just some facts:
Ref to the conducting characteristics of Silver it’s better than Copper only by 5%. So actually, by adding 5% to a copper wire’s cross section, you get the same conducting quality as silver.
The only problem is, that Silver is more expensive than copper by 104 times (14,000%) !
So think it over before you run to pay for a silver cable 140 times the price, to gain 5% of conductivity...
For me, it sounds as a bad investment. I would go a different way:

As all matters is the match of your speaker cable to the Amp’s output resistance (DF), pass me the data of your Amp’s DF and required length of the cable, and I return you a calculated figure, of how thick of a cable you need.



oldhvymec
5,101 posts
 

b4icu325 posts07-27-2020 12:38amJust some facts:
Here are some facts, 30 years ago even radio shack new better cable sounded better, maybe a good ear cleaning, and a little reading will give you a little in site.  You will have to be honest with yourself. CAN YOU HEAR, well? Different cables, can and do sound different.

BTW, YOU don't have to be the only one hearing, or not hearing the same thing... DF and cable length, that's it? If that is all you want to address, then that is all your going to do. It's a way, but not the BEST, way. Your spouting really OLD STUFF.. and it's just not so...or is it?
After all, the earth is flat, right? ;-)

Regards...
auxinput
2,920 posts
 
b4icu started another thread and has been pushing very hard in different threads that big gauge speaker wire beats everything else.  I would take all this with a grain of salt.  Generally, if you have a speaker cable that is somewhere in the 9-12awg range, you should be good if the cable is high quality.
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