Are silver cables on the way out?

I enjoy listening to good music, and I enjoy finding the right components that go together to make good music. In the past I have had systems that included the best of Audio Research tube amps, Wilson Watts /Puppies/Whow, Double KLH 9 Electrostatic speakers, Fulton Premiers, Magneplanars, Wadia digital, Theta digital, and the very first prototype of the Khorus, and etc.
I have used some of the best in cables with these high end components ... ARC, AudioQuest, Cardas, NBS, MIT top end Terminators that cost me over $7,000 for the interconnects and speaker cables. And, I could hear the difference that every single component produced in the audio chain, whether good or bad.
I now enjoy putting together much more monetarily sedate systems that I seem to enjoy much more.
So, now, I have an Arcam FMJ CD23 player, an ARC CA-50 Integrated tube amp, and Silverline SR-17 monitors on SoundAnchor 4 posts stands. And, up until 3 weeks ago, I was using copper conductor interconnects made by Talon that replaced JPS Labs SuperConductor Plus interconnects; and speaker cables crafted by Silverline with the same copper wire that was used in the speaker enclosures.
But, when Alan (Silverline) sent me the speaker cables, he asked me to try a silver solid wire jumper, and compare it with the copper wire jumper. These jumpers were only 2 inches long. So, after I burned in the speaker cables with the copper wire jumpers (100 hours), I decided to try the silver jumpers. Wow! What a difference ... better focus and quieter background were the first notable improvements!
This was my very first experience with silver in audio. But, now, I had to try more! So, I bid on Ray Valentine's silver 1m interconnect, and I won. For the past 3 weeks (140 hours), I have listened in amazement with Ray's silver IC taking the signal from the FMJ CD23 player to the ARC integrated tube amp.
The background is so silent that I hear much more of the nuances of the music. So much grunge has disappeared! Focus and transparency are superb ... each instrument has its place with space. The soundstage is wider and even has a little more depth. Listening to Danny Wright's "Black and White" solo Steinway piano, I can hear the hammers striking the wire, and his pedal work ... all the nuances are defined. The Steinway is there!
Eric Clapton's "UnPlugged" is so life like ... the picking and plucking nuances are revealed, and yet his voice is warm and the right size and in the right place.
Ray's silver interconnect has made the most dramatic improvement of any cables that I believe I've ever heard!
Now, I've got to try Ray's silver speaker cables in my system ... I am compelled to do that!
Even if you don't win a low-bid auction, his prices are very low. You are not buying a name brand ... you are buying an outstanding "unheard of" product. Right out of the box, you will see the build quality ... and then you will hear it!
And, by the way, I don't know Ray ... except for his interconnect.

There is nothing inherently wrong with silver-- as is well known, it is the best electrical conductor of any metal on the planet at room temperature. Any "problems" in silver wire are almost certain to be due to implementation, i.e, other factors such as cable geometry, dielectrics, gauge, winding, etc. Again, as is well known, silver is highly prone to oxidation and if it is not protected from this problem (meaning varnished or otherwise molecularly coated), it will be adversely affected. Many silver-wire makers simply don't address this problem. In addition, where gauge matters (i.e, speaker cable), it is far cheaper to use bigger copper wire to lower the resistance than it is to use a silver wire of equal resistance. Many silver speaker cables probably got a reputation as "zippy" because they were just plain too small.

Snooks' observation matches one that I heard a couple of years ago in my home. We had a new speaker being demoed for the NJ Audio Society in my home, which used a copper jumper between the bass section and the separate tweeter-midrange module that sat on the bass cabinet. As we were positioning the speakers, for fun I put in my Kimber Black Pearl jumpers I then used for my speakers in place of the copper jumpers (a 6 inch length). The speaker designers were stunned at the better clarity, dynamics and overall tonal and harmonic truthfulness resulting from the change; we used the jumpers for the demo.

My system currently uses copper interconnects all throughout (I'm pretty sure the NBS Omega is copper) except for the Graham IC-70 arm cable; in the past I've not liked the sound of silver in my system for the reasons Tim (Tireguy) mentioned. I'm now re-thinking that, and I'm trying Siltech's new G5 interconnect between my phono stage and preamp. The latest silver designs seem, at least in limited demos I've heard and definitely in the new Graham armcable, to have become far more natural and full-bodied than the older designs I remember. Ultimately, the differences I'm hearing are probably more a result of other factors in the cables' design than the type of wire involved, though, as many of the other posters here have noted.

I continue to use Red Dawn silver-over-copper for long IC between pre and monos, as well as speaker cables, but have found that I prefer Discovery Essence XLR pure copper over the RD, HT Pro-Silways, and Siltech ST48b between my digital source (EMC-1 MkII) and pre. Detailed but fuller.
Great balance and bloom without loss of air. Kudos to Discovery....