Would silver cables beat UP-OCC copper?

@nonoise - thank you for that link - I just wished I had seen it when it was published. It would have save me a lot of time :-)

I guess my first learning experience WRT cables and the effects/impacts of capacitance was around 10 years ago - I purchased a NAIM amp and they state on their web site that speaker cables having high capacitance will damage their amps, due to oscillation.

But my thought process at that time was focused more on the capacitance between the two conductors - which is more akin to a capacitor and probably responsible for the change in tonality

It wasn’t until more recently that I applied some thought as to how the signal in the wire could be impacted by the insulation of that wire. Which proved to be more of an impact to clarity and details

This became very apparent once I had tried the same wire with different insulations in my Interconnects,

• where the ONLY thing that changed was the insulation of the signal wire.
• all wires were UP-OCC copper of the same gauge
• All other wires and connectors were unchanged

The results: as Dielectric Constant of the insulation decreased each time

• improvements in clarity and details were observed
• improvements in image size and precision were observed because the signals in both L & R channels were more accurately being reproduced, hence recreating the original "image".

This paragraph from the article sums up nicely the impact an insulation of a wire has on the signal...

Because this energy, once stored, is released back into the signal path out of phase with the incoming signal, either canceling incoming increments of signal or creating out-of-phase discharge artifacts, this is hugely important and is, in itself, proof that cables or any other capacitor in your system can make a difference to its sound.

Thanks again for the article - it's good to have "the Why's" confirmed

Cheers - Steve

@williewonka,

Thank you for the elaborate and detailed response. Your description of the cables with a Teflon outer jacket makes me think of my own custom length Tempo Electric silver ICs with oversized Teflon jackets. The ends are silver WBTs. I use these cables between the preamp and amps. Have been using them for about 14 years now. My default IC for German Octave MRE130, Bryston 4BSST, and now McIntosh MC2301 amps. 
Interestingly, my experience using silver and copper ICs started years ago with OEM Neotech cables. A dealer I met had a variety of Neotech OEM spools laying around and made me several incarnations of these cables when I asked him for some samples. I thought the copper Neotech ICs with copper WBTs sounded the most accurate on triangles and on mid range brass sounding instruments. The silver Neotechs with silver WBTs sounded exactly as others have experienced,,,sounding more zippy on the high end, but, at the same time, I felt as if the mid triangle was nearly, or the same as the copper, but the highs seemed to be a little more emphasized. I believe this perceived sound difference is why some prefer one type of cable over the other (individual gesmach and system composition).  I spent months going back and forth until I just stayed with the silver cables. 
The silver and copper Neotech cables had been my reference point over other cables I have tried for many years. I felt like generals kicking out lieutenants from briefings when vendors came over to demonstrate their high end cables, and I stated, system sounds worse, not interested. For me, thou shall not tell me that I need to allow for cable break in to hear any differences. One should invariably hear something or not, simple as that, and the quality of playback should not  sound less, or cause you to perceive it sounding worse. Some vendors may even say that your cables you own are so bad, that your ears need to adjust to the new cables. Let’s not go down that rabbit hole. 


Recently, I went against the grain of simple cables and ordered Audioquest Fire XlRs between the phono amp and preamp and ordered Analysis Plus Apex Silver phono cable. The Audioquest replaced my Neotech silver ICs and the Analysis Plus replaced my Silver Breeze phono cables with silver WBTs. The Silver Breeze is a simple silver wire with minor outer shielding. So far, all seems to be very quiet with some noticeable improvement in low level details. The Audioquest Fires will stay in place for a while and I will swap in the Neotech silver ICs between preamp and phono to see if I perceive anything glaringly different. If not, it is a shame that simple cable designs, such as pure copper or silver core with an oversized outer Teflon jacket are not more readily spoken of. I do follow the DIY community in another forum, but, that seems like it’s the Underground, LOL. 

Ciao,
Audioquest4life

Does anybody have a guess as to what percentage of the signal strength is captured and released back to the conductor at a different phase?

Also, anyone know the Dielectric Constant (Dk) of the enamel coating on magnet wire?

@koestner - RE: What Percentage

I think a better question is - is it audible?

And the answer is - very audible !

On the signal wire only,  I moved from

• UP-OCC copper with Teflon
• UP-OCC Copper with Foamed Teflon
• UP-OCC coipper in cotton sleeve
• and finally Bare UP-OCC copper in an oversized Teflon tube

Each time there were noticeable improvement

The final variant excelled in details, clarity and imaging, so much that I could not believe what I was hearing from such a simple change

The biggest improvements being the imaging which was clearly audible.

Trusting my ears has always worked for me.

Regards - Steve