Silver-plated or single metal IC's?

Dave_b,
Yes crazy dynamic is one of the major differences between live unamplified music and recorded music- so too is the sense that music is simply emanating in concentric circles from each individual instrument or singer on stage. I do not however always find live music to be smooth in the audiophile sense of the word- far from it. One needs only to listen to a horn section at the symphony to understand what I mean. I find music mirrors life- some days are sunny, comfortable, and beautiful. Others are cold, windy, and brisk. As with life I enjoy a brilliant and diverse pageant and as with life I prefer not to view my surrounds through rose colored glasses.

Well, we will just have to agree to disagree then Leica man. As for me, I have never heard an acoustic instrument(s) that have sounded brisk or cool...even a high school band playing full tilt 20 paces away sounds wonderfull...deafening maybe, but not harsh or cold. I choose not to inflict an analytical perspective on any of my music. Over the years my experience has shown that it is possible to put together a system that is not flawed by the inherent design errors found in most audio equipment. In fact, for awhile I bought into the notion that the CD was a medium that was seriously compromised...not so! The problems were with the companies designing for an engineering aesthetic and not for musicality. The digital playback gear is undergoing a rennaisance currently and some companies offer state of the art products without accentuating or in many cases corrupting the reproduction chain in the name of accuracy. Accuracy should allow the medium of choice to convey the most natural reproduction possible from a performance. As I have sought out these companies who design by ear as much as by principled engineering, my enjoyment of my vast collection of redbook CD's has increased tremendously. In fact, I have many redbook CD's that would destroy most audiophiles bias toward the need for new formats. Even in my current simplified system I have a hugely layered textured harmonicaly complete and dynamic window on almost anything I put on. It sounds every bit as clear and complex as live music while retaining the sense of ease and lack of harmonic distortion that causes many systems to impart an edge or stridency that is not actually on the recordings. I may go deaf standing in front of a horn section or a drum kit (which I don't recommend),but I would not do so from exposure to the sonic elements.

hi leica man:

musical=timbre, pitch and dynamics. all recordings when reproduced by a stereo system are inaccurate with respect to timbre and probably dynamics. recordings are definitely a problem.

your synergistic cable may emphasize the upper frequencies too much.

we can agree to disagree.

Dave_b,
Actually from reading your post I do not think we disagree- at least not on live music. I was not implying live un-amplified music sounds cool or lacking in harmonic over tones. My reference to warm and sunny days vs. cool days was merely a metaphor for the vast differences I hear when visiting different venues of live music or listening to different types of instruments. The example of horn sections relates to the mad dynamics I hear in live music and the "bite" they have when heard live. Or an amplified blues band and it's raw and sometimes edgy nature- hardly "audiophile" qualities but when that's the artistes intention, and if that's what's in my recordings, then that's what I want to hear otherwise I'll be throwing out other details, like subtle inflections from a harp, or the reverberant nuances of a live piano.

A light transparent warmth that does not mask detail, nuance, or dynamics and sound staging but allows me to enjoy my extensive music collection is what I seek and get from my current system- previously I had an all Valhalla system that "spotlighted" upper frequencies at the expense of the mid-range and bass. These cables were also harmonically "lean" whereas the new Tesla cables are anything but and yes, they are silver and silver alloy hence throwing my hat into this ring. With the Valhalla's in my system I enjoyed listening to less then half my music collection- a silver cable, and a horse of a different color you might say.

I feel there are just too many variables related to the final sound of a cable to make blanket statements like "silver bad, copper good." Dielectric, geometry and shielding all play their part and it is the final interaction of perhaps dozens of variables that create the net “sound” in any cable. For example, my cables have two completely different "sounds"- one when the active shields are turned "on" and another when they are turned "off." Therefore, it would be a gross over simplification to place the credit or blame on any one variable, like conductor material, dielectric, shielding, etc since we are listening to a net result of all these variables at once when making any definitive conclusions.

I also agree with you on Redbook CD's- how much better our ten year old CD's sound today when played in a system with modern digital playback and cables compared to ten years ago.

Disagreement on terms such as brisk, cool, musical etc. is natural as there are no universal definitions, only subjective appraisals.

However, anybody with audio experience knows that copper, silver, and plated wires cannot be pigeon holed into categories such as cold, warm, etchy, grainy, soft, etc.

Purity of the wire, geometry, and dielectric are far more critical determinants of a wire's sonic signature.

That is not debatable.