Serious Question About Silver vs Copper Conductivity for Power

The power cord does not have any effect on the filter capacitor charging time. The filter cap discharges when the rectifier output falls to zero and charges when the voltage from the rectifier exceeds the voltage on the capacitor. The charge time depends only on the power supply load resistance multiplied by the capacitance (RC time constant). For a cap to charge faster, the capacitance must be larger, and a larger capacitance results in a higher current draw. This higher current is sourced from the transformer secondary, which must have a high enough VA rating to meet the speaker load demand.

As long as the voltage from the wall receptacle isn't reduced, the amplifier will preform to spec. A larger gage  power cord will lessen any voltage drop more so than if it's copper or silver. You will need a power cord length of a 1,000 feet to see only a 1-ohm difference in resistance from copper to silver.

I'm not going to dive into whether one sounds better than the other, but from a physics point of view a six foot silver or copper pc the same gage has no electrical differences at 120 volts at 60 hz.

@mitch2 

The 8awg Shunyata power cable runs from the Shunyata Research V16 Power Distributor and the wall socket.  The Kimber Kable runs directly to powered speakers.

@holmz 

I never said there was silver magic, nor did I imply it.  That is an erroneous and rather offensive stereotype that I don't appreciate.

I don't deny my lack of knowledge.  However, I have decades of experience.  You may see that as baseless testimony with no "facts" to back it up, but no one will have those facts.

As to the information you were unable to find:

"Breakthrough Power Cord Technology

Palladian looks significantly different than other high-end power cables. That's because of its breakthrough technology resulting from thousands of hours of research at Kimber's well-equipped laboratory.

Kimber's engineers developed a special SWR (standing wave ratio) enhancement technology, which dampens electrical standing wave reflections. This proprietary technology has permitted the creation of an AC power cable of unmatched clarity, silence and freedom from grain."

A simple google search on "Kimber Palladian Standing Wave Ratio" will find multiple sites with this blurb. Even though it is for an earlier model, the tech never changed, only the look.

And the information regarding dynamic transient current delivery can be found here:

There is no article for how the rectifier and capacitor system worked because that was a discussion I had with technical support at Shunyata Research about their equipment and cables.

If I am wrong, fine, I am wrong.  The results are all I care about.  No harm in wanting to understand WHY I have those results.

I’m not going to dive into whether one sounds better than the other, but from a physics point of view a six foot silver or copper pc the same gage has no electrical differences at 120 volts at 60 hz.

+

and going from 14 ga to 12 ga is much less resistance than a 6% boost in going to silver from copper - in terms of conductivity.

And back to the earlier physics…
The teflon insulation actually cuts the speed proportional to the dielectric. So the field propagation along the cord is delayed more as the teflon, or whatever’s dielectric constant goes up.

Does that make a difference? Probably not… but a copper wire with no insulator is faster than a copper wire with teflon and/or a silver wire with a teflon jacket.
Faster by a few nanoseconds.

@gs5556 

That is precisely why a discussion in cable theory won't help. I have already had this disccusion with one electrical engineer who tried to use math to determine what the electrical capabilities were of the 8awg cable vs the powered speaker that was using it and he didn't understand why I needed such a cable.  Well, that's because there is always a variance in the spec of any device.  Manufacturers will give you the basic cables that guarantee function, but that doesn't mean a more robust cable won't cause the device to perform better.

There are no tools for measuring sound quality except the human ear and that tool is subjective.