Serious Question About Silver vs Copper Conductivity for Power

@holmz As to manufacturer’s hype, we all need to keep our bullsh** detectors turned up full, otherwise we and our wallets are just cannon fodder.. Most people know that electricity travels at something approaching the speed of light, so a 7% reduction in the time to traverse a 6 foot length of wire will not be very long at all in audio terms. In this discussion, we are only keeping a capacitor topped up of course. You just can’t beat good old common sense that regrettably appears in very short supply these days and not just in audio

@clearthinker

Yeah but it is not 7% faster, it is 7% more conductive.

• And even if we were to say it was 7% faster, throwing in some PVC or Teflon slows the field down by 1/SQRT(k), so using an insulator with a lower dielectric constant (k) defines the speed. But alas the conductor material does NOT define the speed of electricity, nor the speed of light, or any other EM field.
• And if we were to imagine some massive high amperage burst during a uS, then the inductance probably comes into play much quicker than the silver versus copper conductivity.

As others have pointed out going from a 14ga copper to a 14ga silver is 7% better for lowering resistance, but going to 12ga or 10ga is a lot more benefit than 7%.

Than as ​​​@mitch2 sort of implied, the current flow through a 20ga cable seems like it going in the opposite direction of the OP’s hypothesis of dumping massive short current bursts into the amp.

I use an effective 20ga for ICs, and they seem OK… however I would be using a “store bought” power cord over a 20ga power cord.

The mention of the 20ga power cord solution has me thinking that we have been expertly trolled… in masterclass fashion.

For those nervous types who are obsessed by the risk of noise, I concur about DC battery supplies. These are particularly useful with preamps as you say, where the oomph required is much less than for power amps. But unless you are an electrical engineer, you need to buy an amp with built in provision for a battery supply, and this restricts choice unacceptably for most. I wonder if there s a place for a well-engineered all-in unit to do the job of inputting to an amp designed to take only 240v AC. Battery supply kills off all noise issues except for the very severely obsessed.

The old preamp was fine and has no noise issues.
The new power supply one was a package deal with a phono stage.

It sounds good, but I did not get it being obsessed with noise… It just looked good to have all the pieces in a stack, and adds some Feng Shui to make domestic bliss.

I am NOT getting a battery pack for it, but if I was to put it into, say, a camper or motorhome, then I easily could.

@holmz    Yes I should have said conductivity, not speed.  I am entirely prepared to accept your scientific explanation and I thank you for it.

But this element of the discussion relates to topping up large capacitor(s) in a power amp to replace power used by the unit in playing music.  If you employ a decent gauge of wire (as manufacturers put in the box for you), there is no way enough juice is not going to get to the cap(s), and no way sending 107 per time unit is going to be better than sending 100.  Indeed, the cap won't absorb anywhere near all the power that can run through the wire and will in fact draw a lot less than that.

The concern is entirely unwarranted and obsessive.

@grannyring 

The cable provided by the manufacturer is barely 18awg. It will still be twisted copper strands the thickness of a human hair.  The manufacturer didn't believe there was a fire risk with copper strands the thickness of a human hair twisted into an 18awg strand encased in PE. Copper and PE have lower melting points than silver and Teflon. Again, these silver strands are thicker and separately encased in Teflon before they are braided. I am not concerned about a fire risk, not even in the slightest.

My query is about differences in performance, not safety.

Concerning the mixture of various answers in this thread, I feel like they all counter each other.  On the one hand, saying that the type of conductive material doesn't matter, but on the other hand saying you need more conductive material. 🤔  Then suggesting cables don't make a difference, but getting a bigger cable is best 😏. 

In regards to being careful about cost, the cable I am getting is three times cheaper than the one it's replacing. So nay-sayers should rejoice in my decision 🤑. It just so happens that all the other super-expensive cables I have replaced in my system with this brand have each surpassed their predecessors. Albeit all those cables were Synergistic Research cables. This time it will be Kimber Kable. We will soon see if Kimber's pinnacle product can be bested by a cable some folks think is a fire hazard or snake oil.

It is easy to troll people who are in a rush to prove what they know, especially if what they know is not a lot. If this is a troll, a lot of effort has been put into it. The poster has system pictures with many expensive accessories.

The best example of this is when I was running Audioengine A2+. Those are tiny and needed far less power. Those were also running on the Palladian. The power main was the Shunyata Research Delta. I felt the sound quality was incredible, except a bit thin because of the size of the drivers. I upgraded to the HD6 with the expectation that it would sound better than the A2+.

The first clue should be the $699/pair, powered speakers, that makes up the reference system. Most should have checked out at that point if they didn’t check out from the insistence that those most likely to be able to answer the question don’t answer the question. Expert troll or begging the answer or just confused? Either way, it has sure brought some people out with some very curious ideas of how electricity and circuits work. I find it entertaining.

Concerning the mixture of various answers in this thread, I feel like they all counter each other.  On the one hand, saying that the type of conductive material doesn't matter, but on the other hand saying you need more conductive material. 🤔  Then suggesting cables don't make a difference, but getting a bigger cable is best 😏. 

Okay, I will play along just for fun. If you insist on only getting answers from people who don't have the knowledge to answer, why are you surprised that the answers are all over the place. People with the appropriate knowledge will all respond the same. People without the appropriate knowledge will be guessing and their answers will be all over the place.