Differences between cable sound.

I agree with MR Tennis, in that the same metal cable can sound very differently. As has been said many times before much of this is component and system dependent. In my specific case with my systems over the years I`ve found good quality silver to be the more natural and less colored with superior transparency and tone.Brightness and edge weren`t an issue at all.Yes,YMMV.
Regards,

I feel like silver needs a defender here and of course, it's just IMO:

Use the right insulation (teflon or ?) and geometry and silver is the best.

Silver is a better conductor than copper, copper is better that gold. (fact not opinion). I'd describe it as an honest cable (done right). If you have a system that you would like to tame some brightness in, silver may not be the best choice but not because it's bright, it just hides less.

A good silver cable will cost A LOT more. I'd put it near the top of the diminishing return scale...money usually better spent elsewhere.

fwiw, I use silver interconnects and speaker wires everywhere now (CJ preamps, Pass amps, SET amps, Magnepans etc). The biggest surprise came when I had a vintage Marantz 18 receiver (very early ss) and needed some speaker wire to hook it up. I had an extra 8' set of silver/teflon but didn't want to use an "honest" cable on old ss. I did and the result was a sweeter sound. I still haven't figured that one out but I don't argue with my ears. I learned long ago it's fruitless, they win every time.

Boss302, if you are referring to the cable connecting the output of the phono stage to a preamp, and the phono stage can be located close to the preamp, keep in mind that the sonic effects of whatever cable is chosen can be minimized by keeping it as short as possible. Which in turn would minimize the differences between different types of cables.

And I would second the comments by some of the others to the effect that cable performance is highly system dependent. And more specifically that it is dependent to a significant degree on the technical characteristics of what the cable is connecting, in ways that tend not to be predictable.

07-24-13: Onemug
The biggest surprise came when I had a vintage Marantz 18 receiver (very early ss) and needed some speaker wire to hook it up. I had an extra 8' set of silver/teflon but didn't want to use an "honest" cable on old ss. I did and the result was a sweeter sound.

Could be that the receiver was happier with whatever load capacitance that cable presented to it than with the capacitance of other cables you might have tried, rather than having anything to do with how the cable conducted the signal to the speaker. Or perhaps it had something to do with differences in RFI pickup entering the receiver's feedback loop. Just a couple of speculative guesses; there are undoubtedly other subtle effects that could have been responsible as well.

07-24-13: Boss302
Being from Wisconsin also and going through the fiasco of Braun got me thinking of helping my friend.

LOL! You have my sympathies, although we Yankee fans here in the Northeast certainly have our share of problems as well.

Regards,
-- Al

The first two questions you need to ask yourself is:
1. Does your system have enough resolution to allow you to hear differences between cables?
2. Are your ears acute enough to tell the difference?

For me, I cant hear differences in cables past the $1000 mark. Maybe its my system or my hearing but I view this as a positive because I save lots of money on cables! And I personally prefer silver cables. When done right, they sound more organic and natural to me.

there are other factors besides metal that determine a cable's performance.

there are several cable manufactureres.

here are three:

aural thrills
pear audio
fusion audio

i own fusion audio cables and have owned aural thrills interconnects.

i also own the capativa continuous cast silver interconnect. it is balanced in its frequency response. it is a very pure silver.