Are silver conductor interconnects the most transparent sounding?

Nothing at all wrong with having all your cables from the one manufacturer, even the one product line from that manufacturer. Many audiophiles do that and some believe very strongly that it has benefits (Roy Gregory, for example). But for God's sake, do not call it a "loom"!

 

The "coherent about the sound" is subjective.

 

Well, cables are subjective.

 

If somebody is able to support his living by selling his own, no-brand cables, and if he does that for decades without even spending a single cent on advertising, I am perfectly willing to give him. a try. Especially after I have spoken to him on the phone for an hour, and I end up with a recommendation for his budget line. Of course, a full return policy also helps.

Before I called the guy, I was reasonable sure that I had maxed out my system capacities. It was more an attack of upgraditis that I even called him and I was very, very skeptical. Frankly, the basic idea was to convince myself that different cables DO NOT make a significant difference. More than anything else, I wanted to put my mind at ease by trying.

That was several months ago and the cables are still here.

I‘m not talking about a corporation salesman, this is a person who is manufacturing his own product and who has put in a lot of skill and effort in order to offer the best possible product at a very reasonable price. There is nothing fancy about my cables, no gold plating or the like. Truth be told, they actually look pretty cheap.

 

Personal experience? Customer satisfaction? First of all, I called this guy up and I could speak to the man in charge. Try that with Audio Note or any other big brand.

He told me he had compared about 40 different cables and chosen the ones that sounded best to him. Next step he selected the best plugs to match them. I neither have the time or the inclination to do that myself, so I‘m perfectly willing to give somebody the benefit of the doubt.

Plus, saving two steps in the distribution chain can save you a hell of a lot of money.

Read my previous post on the subject. I ordered this stuff with zero expectations. What I wanted most was to put my mind at ease on the matter.

 

Order your copper cables 7% shorter and you get the same total conductance as silver.

There's a lot more than 7% difference in the construction methods and conductor gauge of differing cables, regardless of metal. Quality is more important, especially with the terminators.

If you can hear the difference between line-level cables, that's an engineering defect with the equipment on either end.

 

My fav in general is silver plated copper, that is if I had to pick only one. I don't use that everywhere though. As mentioned, it's system dependent on which will sound best in each one.

 

I'm not sure what you're saying. Your previous post to which I responded to said: "What I‘ve been told by the real world experts is that it‘s always a good idea to stick with the same line for your interconnects, power cables, and power strip."

That means according to you, "experts," plural, with "real world" experience have posited a rule that suggests if a users buy one cable from one company or from one company's particular line, that user should buy all the rest of the cables from the same company and the same line.
Meaning, if you buy one Monster Cable Essentials Advances interconnect, all the rest of the cables and power strips in your system should been Monster Cable. If you buy one Audioquest Angel interconnect, all the rest of the cables in your system should come from the Audioquest Angel line, etc.

First I don't believe that this is the opinion of "real world experts" -- if you ask dozens and dozens of audio engineers and people who wire broadcast and recording studios or designers of audio, etc, experts with real world experience, I don't think you'll find that they maintain such a rule that home hifi enthusiasts should follow. Besides this one guy, how many "real world experts" told you this?

Second, what you're saying here is that one guy sold you stuff you liked which he selected from stuff he tested that he said is the best. I believe that. And he may even have been selling you stuff he thought sounded best, not just stuff that delivered him the highest margins. But that's completely different from saying there's a widely held, general rule among multiple experts that all the cables in a system should come from one company, or one line from one company.

The fact is a) most cable that's sold for audio use is circa 26 or 24 or 22 awg braided shielded coax and most if it is going to perform similarly and is going to use wire made by one of the two or three big global wire manufacturers regardless of the name on the jacket; and b) most speaker cable is similarly the same -- zip cord style stranded parallel pair with wire from Belden or General Cable or whatever. Differences in connectors -- and cleanliness and tightness of connections probably have more of an impact on sound than difference between these cables. Furthermore, the cables don't have a characteristic sound of their own, how they sound depends very much on the interactions with the system -- the output impedance of amps and the impedance profile of speakers and the lengths of the speaker runs; the impedances of line level devices in the change; the presence of AC leakage and the resistance of the shielding/return path, etc.

For those of us who go down this rabbit hole and become interested in other aspects of cable and going beyond those basic, common, home audio analog cables -- different materials; various kinds of different geometries: twinax cables, Litz wiring; other esoteric geometries; the sonic differences between solid vs stranded conductors; different grain structures of conductors; silver vs. copper; different dielectric materials; etc -- there's a lot to dig into. But it's stuff you won' t necessarily be able to tell anything about by "line" or brand. You need to actually know what the differences are under the outer jacket with the brand stamped on it to make an informed choice. So "stick with the same line" is kind of meaningless advice because it takes into account only the nameplate and not the actual products.

If you say I found a supplier I like who makes great cables, that's one thing. If you say experts believe users should use only one brand or one line of cable throughout their systems that's another.

 

These days, everybody it seems everbody can become an 'internet expert' in about 10 minutes. If you manage to make a living from your business for extended period of time, you may qualify as a 'real world expert' in my book. Hope that clarifies that term.

If you read my previous posts, I already named the two sources I was referring to. This is all I said: I talked to two people I trust on this matter, both said the same. I bought from one them, worked for me. All I intended was to share my experience, and I also wanted to make clear what this opinion is based on. Nothing more to it.

I consider myself a 'real world expert' in my profession, and after more than 22 years, I feel I have any right to do so. When it comes to cables and such things, I know NOTHING. So I went out and found somebody I trust and followed his advice. Nothing more to it.

It is an approach that has perfectly worked for me in many walks of life, but it's just my personal experience. By any means, I DO NOT think I have found the 'gospel truth' here.

 

I have found that the better cables use silver in some sort of way. I think geometry matters in terms of whether silver sounds bright or not. And in my own experience, it seems that phono cables that are a mix of copper and silver sound more balanced than all silver.

I think overall metallurgy is just one element of design with geometry and connector quality also being important.

 

Nothing in your above reply is relevant to your original assertion, so I am as confused as chervokas, and since he has already run through the issue in post #36 I see no point in adding anything further here.

 

As we veer farther from the OP's original question I can report that after a long listening session last night I believe the answer is (in my system with my cables) yes, generally, yes. The Kimber KCAG silver phono cables definitely bring a bit more detail in the high frequency spectrum and while loosing some warmth in the bass presence region bass as a whole is a crisper and more forceful. No rounded edges here! Vocals seemed to benefit quite a bit too. I think it is a little more lifelike. I think the transparency and the detail brings out the human touch a bit. l see a set of used Kimber KCAG cables on Ebay listed for$396, the Ortofon cables I was using previously can be had for about $140 new. That is a huge difference and if I didn't have the silver cables to play with I would not have tried them at the price. I guess I had more money 25 years ago! I think it would be worth a try based on my experience now though. I mean for the difference of about $250 it is a real possibility of significant upgrade.

 

The best silver cable I've ever heard in my listening room.... Siltech Triple Crown. Unfortunately not in my budget.

SoundRebels

 

I have tried copper, silver & copper/silver coated interconnects and speaker cables. In my system (see sig/profile) I have found that the copper/silver-coated cables sound best to my ears. I like the idea of buying cables from the same manufacturer, but I don't believe it's essential. Right now I've been quite enamored with Morrow Audio cables and I would love to try their SP6 Grand Reference speaker cables next. I'm pleased with my current Valab (Vintage Audio Lab) speaker cables, which are custom cables out of Taiwan, but I've had them for years and years and I'm itching for a change.

 

Same manufacturer does not work for me- my sources (vinyl, CD, digital server) each sound different and have different requirements.
For example, turntable to phono preamp requires a shielded, low capacitance cable and none of the other devices need that.
I wound up with different brands in an effort to make each component source sound its best in my system. One brand did not fit all.

 

Me neither - but if I was not a DIY audiophile, I would probably go the "get my all my cables from the same guy" route.

 

All-Clad is overrated. I have a lot of it. Buy commercial pots and pans from a restaurant supply, and get twice the quality for half the price.

 

Uh huh.

 

I tried Kimber Silver Steak and KCAG I think they were called and found them to be bright and uninvolving in my system. I switched to Grover's first all silver IC's and loved the relaxed definitive detail. Unfortunately they did lack some in the bass department. Then I tried his hybrid Silver/Copper and everything worked out extremely well. One day I hope to try out his Empress cable line to see if there any more benefits. I find cables in general to be more system dependent as opposed to the term subjective to which brand and model work best.

 

Silver only works good with silver. Are your speaker crossover's and everything else wound with quality silver wire ?
I could say that silver wire is hard to place.

 

Silver-coated copper wire has always seemed an odd concept to me: is it a mix of superior (good silver) and inferior (bad copper) as a compromise because you can't afford the full silver?, or do they supposedly blend for the best of each ('bright' silver and 'warm' copper etc). Genuine if no doubt naïve question.

 

It's a cost thing. This is how they make some types of aircraft wire. Electrons mostly move on the surface of a conductor, so in theory, most of the conducting is happening on the silver portion.

This type of design used to be a big problem for aircrafts operating in harsh environments, as it can be very susceptible to corrosion, aka "red plague."

 

You mean the Roy Gregory who, entirely coincidentally, left Hi-Fi+ to go and work in marketing for Nordost? After years of, entirely co-incidentally, plugging Nordost "looms" in Hi-Fi+? All of which is a massive coincidence...

I should add that I do not normally subscribe to certain cynical views that hi-fi journos are in any way financially influenced by manufacturers and am well aware of the number of folk who move from journalism to PR, but this one...Well...

 

I'm not an electrical engineer so maybe you understand current density better than I do, but as I understand it, the extent to which an AC signal moves to the surface of a wire is entirely dependent on the frequency of the signal and the skin depth of the conductor. The skin depth of copper at 20kHz is around half a millimeter. So for even the highest audio frequencies, typical 22, 24 or 26 awg cable -- which is .5 mm in width or less -- will basically be using the whole diameter of the cable to carry the signal. Yeah, there might be slightly more current density at 20kHz on the outside of the conductor, but it won't be the case that most of the conducting of the whole signal will be happening in the outer layer of the cable, as I understand current density and skin depth and frequency. But maybe I'm not understanding it completely.

(Speaker cables, which get larger in diameter to handle the increased current, will have more HF signal being carried on the outer layer of a cable, though why one wants different materials carrying different percentages of the signals or parts of the frequency spectrum, is questionable. Losses from skin effect at 20kHz will still be minimal even with these larger diameter wires, and even those can be mitigated by using Litz wire, it seems to me.)

I thought silver-coated wire was used in aircraft not for it's qualities of conductivity but to inhibit corrosion in the environment in which the aircraft operate. And silver was used instead of tin for better operation in higher temperatures.

 

I believe that silver coated copper was initially designed to provide protection against the formation of an oxide on the outer layer of copper wire when the wire was used in a harsh environment. The silver clad copper wire was repurposed for audio use by those who feel it as some kind of superior audio characteristics.