Silver vs Copper cables

Dean- If I had Halle Berry cables I'd just spend all my time checking connections. Snug fit? Check. Recheck.

Oh yeah- I like copper cables better.

Gjbianchi,
The Nordost Frey cables are copper with silver coating. You may want to try pure silver speaker cables also. I've owned some Nordost silver clad copper speaker cables and noticed they are a little glarey sounding. I thought pure silver would be worse but it isn't. Pure silver speaker cables actually sound better in my system.

I also agree with Gunbei. There's no rule to this cable stuff. Mixing and matching a variety of metals may yield a better sound than just using one metal. I like copper, silver clad copper and pure silver in different parts of the audio chain. It's all about balance.

That being said, a tubed preamp will probably give you more of a definite result than changing the cables.

As for the lovely ladies, I'll take a bite of them all..variety is a good thing!LOL

If you are into DIY at all. Making your own isn't a bad idea. Joesph Levy of Laventure websites did a comparison using DIY 16 awg extra soft temper cables against Kimber pure silver 8AG loudspeaker cables retail $600 a foot..he chose the DIY.

Why do I believe this guy? Well he has nothing to gain. :-) And I've heard the difference myself going from expensive retail to DIY.

Here's the link Make Your Own Home Audio Cables . If you're skiddish about making them. There are plenty of cable making gurus right here on Agon that can make them for you at a fraction of what the big names sell for.

Yes, I wouldn't recommend silver with that equipment, not w/o shades anyway.

As I stated above, these are the comments I simply do not agree with.

I will make an observation, take it for what you will. Many cables makers top cable is silver.

Hopefully he will not mind, here is a comment from HP that I agree with. "...as many urban legends start, this one has some basis in a kind of "perception" -- many silver cables have an extended high end which might well be perceived as "bright" by those unused to hear any top octave, thus the flaws of the transistors or tweeters."

OK, Ok....I am just as deranged as everybody else here in searching for that Holy Grail of an IC for my specific system (only I have kind of a modest budget).

I have a pair of Reality Cables copper IC's on the way to try out for use between my TRL modded Sony source and TRL modded Musical Fidelity A300 integrated.
Also considering trying a pair of the new Decware silver IC's, and the Xtreme AV copper/silver hybrids, and VH Audio silver/copper Pulsar hybrids.
Just not sure where the journey will stop.

Clio09 above is mentoring me a bit as he has much more experience than I owning and auditioning IC's.

I am presently using RS Audio silver IC's. Time to experiment a bit-who knows I may end up not changing.

FWIW-I use DH Labs silver plated copper speaker T14 and Q10 wire in a biwire setup.

Oh, and Halle Berry all the way.

I use solid-silver-conductor cables for both IC and speaker. I compared the silver IC with 2 hi-end copper-conductor cables and the silver won*. I use HomeGrown Audio's IC-4 with either WBT nextgen silver or HG's silver-plated RCAs. At $11 - $12/foot, it's a bargain. http://www.homegrownaudio.com/bulk_wire.htm

I use HG's SC-16 for speakercable, with AQ's silver-over-copper spades at the amp end; it's soldered at the speaker end.

My system has never sounded better.

* But I'm no GEA; I have to work hard at hearing differences. But the silver still sounded SLIGHTLY cleaner, smoother (= not edgy), and more detailed and revealing of small differences.
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