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Silver-plated or single metal IC's?

With regard to single-ended interconnects (RCA), there seems to be two schools of thought about the merits of silver-plated copper versus single-element conductor (ie. pure silver OR copper etc).
I've been led to believe that Silver-plated cables only benefit very high frequency signals (like video), and not audio. Any opinions?
(I'm nowhere near a store that allows try before you buy, so comparisons would be tricky for me).
carl109
leica_man
153 posts
 
Carl,
Don't forget your 5th Golden Rule of Hi-Fi : )

http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?hbest&1176617023&openusid&zzCarl109&4&5#Carl109\

But seriously if you have access to a telephone then you are as close as you need to be to a dealer who will enable you to try before you buy- call The Cable Company.

Cheers!
czbbcl's avatar
czbbcl
1,752 posts
 
Home Grown Audio will allow you to audition as well.
tom_hankins
928 posts
 
www.latinternational.com gives you a 45 day trial period. Full refund if your not happy with the purchase.
artmaltman
769 posts
 
I have generally found that all-copper IC's sound very natural, with a laid back treble, whereas silver coated copper sound faster with a hotter treble. I did not expect that. I kind of figured that you could engineer any kind of sound with any kind of material - it all comes down to the measurable attributes (capacitance, inductance, resistance).

So I don't know if the issue is the material itself or the engineering decisions that tend to accompany certain materials.

I've also noticed that IC's with higher capacitance are more prone to round off the treble at longer lengths. Again, is this cause/effect or association, I don't know.

Of course, it may not matter whether it's cause/effect or not. The point is that you want to know what to buy for what kind of sound.

I do second the recommendation of the Cable Company's loaner program, with the one caveat that I've not worked with them for several years (I've been pretty happy, having settled on a mix of Audience, Nordost, Cardas, Goertz, and Monster).

Art
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