Serious Question About Silver vs Copper Conductivity for Power

Folks like @holmz and yourself see any discussion of cables making a difference as an invitation to shame and belittle.

He hasn’t offered any real scientific facts that matter. Talking about 60 vs 120 hz is just name-dropping scientific data that has no bearing on the question.

He completely removed his credibility when he focused on my "7% faster" comment as "magical." So I posted the scientific journal that explained it. I could keep going, but what’s the point. It’s just an on-going shame-game to you folks.

The reality is, you folks have made up my mind. You don’t have the knowledge nor the experience to answer the question

I am not responsible for emotional feelings, and you are reading in shame and belittling on your own.

You started off saying that the silver is fast, and the teflon keeps it from burning… both statements are untrue.

We do not know if a “faster cable” is better, but 60 Hz (120 Hz) is pretty slow. The way top make a cable faster is by lowering the inductance and/or the capacitance.

1. We lower the inductance with geometry.
2. We lower the capacitance with geometry and the dielectric.
   1. Teflon has a high dielectric constant (k), so we are going the wrong way. You need something more towards k=1 to lower capacitance.

If you are going to buy the cable based upon emotion, then just buy the thing and be done.

If you want to buy the cable based upon theory then it gets difficult as we need theories and metrics. The metrics for the cable did not appear to be provided, and the EE theories are not considered to be overly easy.

The third way is to some up with an alternative hypothesis. This was offered previously, and namely it was , “the output only depends on the smoothness of the DC power supply.”
One could measure the DC power supply, while the amp is in operation.

Or we just by how it sounds, but that is covered in psychoacoustic theory. And it is laden with bias.

As for the criticism of word choice on "faster" electrical conductivity, consider this: "Silver is sometimes thought to be the best conductor because its electrons can move faster than other elements—which is attributed to the polarity of crystals and their structure."

^Freer^, is probably a better word, than faster in that website quote…

Lastly; when people are trying to offer you help and solutions to your question, then accusing them of causing you offence is not helpful in adult conversation. Either explain where and how you were triggered so that they can work on their delivery, or try and read the post without inserting your own emotions.

Have a good day sir.

Conductivity goes gold, silver, copper, aluminum.... solid cable is not necessary because electricity travels on the outside and not throughout a wire... if it is silver coated that should be enough. The only thing I can say is I use silver coated wires and it seems better... but that is my impression.

@frankmc195 there are also silver wires with insulation other than teflon. Coincidentally I have these en route for ICs.

And there are also copper wires with with insulation other than PVC and teflon, specifically with a lower dielectric constant.

And there are wires in silver with the Linz geometry, which are used when one wants lower inductance, like for a phono lead.

table 7.1 here: https://www.engineeringenotes.com/metallurgy/metal-conductivity/conductivity-of-metals-metallurgy/41956

Says:

1. silver
2. sodium
3. copper
4. gold
5. aluminium
6. …

And in a power cord the frequency is low by definition, so more of “the whole wire” is carrying the current. That current gradually moves towards the surface as the frequency increases.

@guakus - No, I actually agree that power cords can make a difference in sound quality. They certainly have in my experience.

However, that does not obviate the science of conveying electrical current, something which you seem to want to ignore.

I have the direct answer to your question.

I have replaced the Kimber Palladian PK10 (an early version) with my DIY silver power cord, feeding my DAC.

For the change to be an upgrade you need to keep these in mind:

1. keep the total AWG the same or heavier. If you go lighter on the total AWG, then you will loose bass, energy and weight (whether on your amp or DAC, phono.) And yes, even though a DAC or a phono stage draws hardly any current, they still benefit greatly from a very heavy AWG power cord. That's because they will be able to draw instanteneous current, and while this current is little, it will come without resistance.

2. The shorter the silver, the better.

3. Avoid lengths of 0.5m, 1m, 2m, 4m. The 0.5,1,2,4,8m series is the perfect antenna to pick up the worst EMI/RFI offenders. Use in between values such as 0.3m, 0.7m, 1.3m, 1.6m, 3m,....

3. The thinner the silver, the better. Try to use AWG30 or thinner. (Yeah, you will need on the order of 100-200 wires per hot / neutral to get the heavy AWG for a power cord!) Use soft anneal silver. If possible, "DEAD SOFT" 3N silver. The dead soft is more important than being 4N or 5N.

4. You also MAY use heavier AWG silver strands, and even sterling silver (only 92.5% silver content), provided that the wire was drawn 50 years ago (or earlier), and the metal had time to recover from the stress of drawing. I have used 70y old AWG19 sterling silver for my power cord (with total AWG10 for each conductor - hot and neutral, no earth ground), about 12in long. (DAC right next to the outlet.) The wires are run inside PTFE tubing, and the two tubes carrying hot and neutral are not running together, but away from each other. You want air to be the dielectric, as air is the best. The teflon tube only touches a piece of the outermost wires.

5. Burn-in: at the beginning of silver burn-in you will notice that high frequencies go up 6-10dB in level. Then it will stabilize, yet feels as if the volume knob is 4-6dB higher than before (well, in my case, compared to the PK10!!!) Now, it's quite crazy considering I'm talking about a DAC with a fixed output. Yet, that was my observation. It will get through this phase in a few days. Resist the temptation to change your crossover, as the tonal balance will stabilize. The power cord change made my DAC sound WAY, WAY more analogue-like, alive, fleshed-out and balanced. The change was literally a paradigm shift. Low resolution mp3 files have lost their digital feel, they sound almost analogue like. Although with less detail level than a high-rez file, but good enough that I feel zero urge to go for higher res versions. Even YouTube / Netflix sound is absolutely engaging.  

I'm sure I will get tons of harassment for this post. Fair warning: I'm not gonna be able to engage in lengthy debates - lack of time.

If you are intrigued or curious, then try it out and report back.

Cheers, Janos

@gareents "However, that does not obviate the science of conveying electrical current, something which you seem to want to ignore"

If I am ignoring it, it means two things:

1) The concept has not been explained well.
2) The concept does not directly apply to the question.