Silver Speaker Cables

I bought some of Vogue Audio’s speaker cables and after receiving them, I discovered they are actually stranded copper with silver substance filling the voids between the strands of copper. After I contacted them about it, they changed their website description to read: “singular multicore bonded silver” but still with no mention of copper.

I’m not saying their speaker cables won’t sound great in your system. That is for you to decide. But don’t be mislead to believe they are 100% pure silver.

I’m hoping they change their website description again to be more accurate, but they are currently dealing with the aftermath of hurricane Ian.

Wow!! Thanks for reporting your findings, and seriously shame on Vogue Audio, wtf! When I looked at the site a week ago I saw no mention nor indication of the cables containing copper content, other than their listed prices seeming too low to absorb the cost of even raw silver, much less premium OCC wire (or whatever)!

This is buried under the "About" tab on their website.

OCC (Ohno Continuous Cast) is a wire casting process developed to eliminate annealing issues and minimize grain boundaries in silver wire. A silver purity of  7N (99.99999%) results in the lowest distortion of an audio signal. Analogy: Smooth asphalt road compared to a gravel road.

​Our wire is custom manufactured for us. It is an alloy of 7N silver 60% and 40% 5N copper. The silver is bonded to the solid copper cores. This method greatly reduces the cost of OCC filament wire yet retains outstanding audio performance. Note: This is not the typical flash-plated stranded wire that many builders offer today.

​Air-core Teflon tubing is known for superior dielectric properties when compared to PVC and PE cores making it ideal for use as a conduit in high-end audio cables. Minimal signal dissipation and reflection.

However, under FAQ, this is what they write:

"Is the 7N OCC wire that is used pure silver? Seems like a very good price for silver cables."

​Yes. There has been some confusion regarding our wire construction. Our wire is a multicore single conductor with a pure silver bonding. This method offers far better economies than typical OCC filament wire but with similar sonic performance. We have clarified these aspects in the product pages. View the Tech link.

The Tech link takes you to the About page with the actual nitty gritty.

@twoleftears

Thanks, I definitely missed that information in my first pass. I just don’t understand why one would refine silver to 7N’s and THEN alloy it with copper?! Also, the now claimed composition of 60% silver + 40% copper still leaves seemingly razor thin margins for the raw material costs versus completed cable prices (particularly 11 or 12 AWG speaker cables).

The magnified OCC copper grain structure pictures are the exact same used elsewhere, including on Outlaw Audio’s website since around year 2000 (where I first learned about OCC wire).

The "bonded" wire process seems at least vaguely reminiscent of LAT International’s "SilverFuse" process (bathing copper cores in silver to make a near alloy). LAT is now defunct. I wonder if the SilverFuse process was picked up and rebranded?

Anyways, I would feel mislead if I had previously bought these cables. Not a good vibe. 

When I went to their website I saw promotion of 7N silver and nothing about copper.  This, to me, is misleading and makes me suspect of their products.  If the “bonded” wire is so good, why do they bury the fact that it’s 40% copper, which also seems like BS to me as even 60% 7N silver would need to be more expensive unless your business model is to go out of business.  I simply don’t trust this company. 

Thanks @twoleftears , I missed that area of their website. 

But 60% still seems awful rich based on the weight of silver required at $20 per ounce.