Would silver cables beat UP-OCC copper?

@nonoise 
I see you are also a Tempo Electric cable user as well. It would be interesting to see how a set of bi-wire Tempo Electric speaker cables compare to your single wire experience. My Neotech high definition silver speaker cables sound better in bi-wire configuration with my speakers, Classic Audio Loudspeakers T1.5 Reference from McIntosh Mc2301 amps. I used the classic Audio copper jumpers at first, but felt that the imaging was slightly subdued. How long are your speaker cables? I need a pair of 10 feet and prefer bananas. 

@audioquest4life ,
My Tempo Electric SCs are both 8' for the 16 GA and I believe 6' for the 14 GA. In addition to the Tempo Electric on the highs, I'm using my trusty old Cabledyne Virtuoso SCs for the bass. They are 10 GA OCC stranded silver with Furutech locking bananas and I really hate the idea of taking them out of the equation as they perform admirably. They're even better sounding than the Tempo Electric, IMHO. 

Quite the quandary I'm in, ain't I?

All the best,
Nonoise

@nonoise,

Yes, you sure are in a SC quandary, LOL. I mean how can you go wrong with 10 gauge OCC stranded silver for the bass?

My Neotech speaker cables are the 9 gauge NES 1002 series which I just found a pair online for 5800, what? I have two pairs of these. I bought them just before Neotech became a true marketing brand instead of being an OEM for several other mainstream cable manufacturers. 
People who look at them think I have welding cables or pythons behind the amps, LOL.  The Tempo Electric cables, which are significantly smaller in diameter compared to the Neotechs, has me wondering how they would sound, hmmm.

 Also, Neotech has plenty of pure silver variants with PTFE options all over the marketplace. Lots of experimentation opportunities for sure. 

In their upper-end ICs, Inakustik go to heroic lengths (with small discs with tiny holes in them) to ensure the wires remain in an air dielectric with minimal contact with anything.  Black Cat's "wavy" flattened wire takes a less expensive path to achieving something close to 100% air dielectric.  Other manufacturers claim an air dielectric but don't post detailed diagrams of how they manage this inside their interconnects.

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

@koestner ,


There are any number of varnish types but polyurethane and polyimide and polyester are most common.  For speakers, there are some epoxies and polyvinyls too.