Pure OCC copper VS Silver Coated OCC Copper Speaker Cables

Material: Pure OCC copper VS Material: Silver Coated OCC Copper Speaker Wire/Cables

I have only had OCC copper cables and never trialed a Silver Coated OCC copper speaker cable before. What are your thoughts guys? Listening Comparisons/Sound Impressions?

There are a couple of cables i already have in mind that cost around a 100 dollars. Hence, i don't need suggestions on anything more expensive. When it costs more than a 100 dollars, it tends to look like a snake to me and i get very scared. I've got serious case of ophidiophobia.

Best Regards!

 

You can't make any generalizations of that type. Knowing the material of the cable or how it is constructed does not not give you any guarantee on how it will sound. You need to hear it. $100 is a drop in the Ocean when it comes to cables and I can tell you they do make a difference. That is provided your ears, your equipment and the source of the music are good enough.

 

My phono cable is Wireworld Platinum Eclipse 7. OCC solid silver. Full Body...high resolution...very transparent...highly refined...High Fidelity!
My interconects are Wireworld Silver Eclipse 7. OCC silver over copper. They are very transparent as well will having excellent body...OCC is all about the grain structure or boundary in copper or silver. reduce the grain struct an its suppose to lead to a better sound quality. OCC is the same as OHNO. or continus cast copper or silver.

 

I was always skeptical until I got some better gear then decided to try new cables. I didn't "splurge" on new cables, but I upgraded from:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B078SBL7JM/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1


To:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07KF2S637/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

and heard a noticeable difference immediately upon playing some tracks I'm familiar with in my system. I now have SKW cables for everything, power cable, interconnects etc. Good deal from everything I hear.

 

I my opinion, more important than the type of metal, is having a Ohno Continuous Casting (OCC) cable instead of oxygen free.

The continuous casting process creates one crystal for the entire length of the cable (up to 125 meters), instead of the 1000's per meter for OFC.

Look at the top row of images below.

Every time the signal has to traverse from one of those crystals to another, it is effected by the grain boundary. Each boundary has capacitance, inductance and and a diode effect. Now, multiply that over thousands of boundaries across the length and width of the cable, and there are 1000's of these circuits the signal has to pass through. This effects the signal quality, with relation to time.

I recently got a job in the IT department at one of the leading biotech companies in the US, Amgen. I was working on a computer in a lab that controls a mass spectrometer, and I was wearing an old Audio Research t-shirt, and a scientist (PhD in chemistry and masters in material engineering) working near where I was working, saw the shirt, and started a conversation on audio, He was the one that explained this to me, in layman's terms.

 

After being here 16yrs I would definitely have to say the highest price ones are going to sound the best! Cheers!

 

Thank you for this response...do you think spending a lil extra for solid silver is worth it over silver coated OCC or is the latter good enough?

 

Agreed....go OCC if it's copper or go home seems to be the discipline. Sounds like you got yourself a cool colleague

 

When purchasing cables...especially silver, one need be carful to buy from established engineers...at least that is my experience. Some guys have no education other than figuring out what's best out of their basement and they put pretty covers on them and asked big dollars. Then you have to have good quality silver. Bad silver can be ear bleed. Good cables are costly, make sure your gear is resolving to make a difference in what you hear. And lastly....watch out, we have a lot of cable police who are dissenters, around here, so be prepared to duck And from looking at your gear list....you wont have any issues with hearing cables....infact, you should get very best cable you need. Rule of thumb best cables are always upstream. If you need solid silver, make sure its coming off your best source and down stream from it should be great copper into your speakers. If you have dark or neutral sounding components, silver will work, just make sure copper is down stream to balance out sound.

 

Thanks for the additional tip on the silver. I will do some digging and try to find something.

I've always known cables cause audible differences. It is very audible (not that subtle) on my high resolution setup+treated room in 1 room and more subtle in a different setup in another room. Even my non-audiophile spouse passed a blindtest in this room just between a very affordable Mogami and Belden cable 17 of 18 times, which is statistically very significant! I can handle the cable police.

 

i really like silver plated copper intetconnects and use them everywhere. however silver plated copper speaker csbles never worked out for my system. currently using 24 conductor copper OCC speaker cables amd am happy with them.

 

No proble. Go to Wireworld online page and you will find lots of info pertaining to cables. Platnium line has OCC solid silver, gold line has OCC silver, silver Eclipes has OCC silver over copper, Eclipes line has OCC copper.

 

Agreed!

I used to buy into the generalisations of silver being brighter than copper, etc… and in the past I’ve owned cables that cost almost as much as my entire system does now

But I’ve subsequently experienced copper strand cables that have all the clarity and treble sparkle of silver strand cables I’ve owned before so (not for the first time) I’ve had to re-orientate my views.

I’m a bad person to ask though. I’m a big fan of pro audio cables - so don’t get it twisted, I’m a paid up cable believer, cables matter and I’ve heard them change the sound character too many times to think otherwise - I’m just starting to think that high end, component priced cables may just cost as much as they do due to their high snake oil content.

 

You have silver over copper upstream, my bro…the same won’t work down stream…..to much of good thing on resolving nature of Cary and Harbeth..potential ear bleed. Put all copper upstream and on best source…silver over copper may work down stream. In your system I would l would do solid silver from TT to phono amp , and silver over copper from phono amp to preamp, and from pre amp to power amp I would go silver over copper into a very nice pair of OCC copper speaker cable. You probably get neutral dynamic sound with lots of detail. Your power amp could use a nice silver over copper 10 or 8 awg power cord….as well as the Cary preamp. Even on the phono amp a 10 awg would be great! Get some Oyaide power outlets with the ceramic covers and you are set! Watch out for cable police…they lurking!

 

i agree.. Im using an aluminum-copper alloy IC. While my current speaker cable conductors use 56 fine gauge occ stands coated and bundled into 8 groups separated with a teflon dielectric insulation. Uses a non-parallel design which helps defuse the dipole effect helping to reduce RFI/EMI. So they claim.

I think they both add a large amount of detail, dimensionality or soundstage, quickness and tighter bass response. low noise floor. A Great sense of realism to instruments and space. Maybe too revealing for some systems or room. Maybe to revealing for me right now too. Im in the process of trying some warmer but transparent cables. Silver over copper is likely for IC's but you never know till you try them!

 

How about ribbons then?

 

Are those Fidelium speaker cables?

FIDELIUM SPEAKER & INTERCONNECT CABLES. Thin foil (ribbon) design derived from electromagnetic wave and waveguide physics to minimize skin-effect phase errors. The skin effect properties of FIDELIUM are up to 33 times superior to copper or silver.

IMHO the best speaker "cables" available. I especially like the interface with speakers, crank down binding posts and create lots of bonds directly to the cable material itself(minimal sound degrading metal/metal interfaces). And they arent tens of thousands of dollars, nor are they made with single crystal copper.

 

Yes. Installing them has made a very positive difference coming from a pair of Acoustic Zen Satori cables (that do look more like snakes!) that I had before. They seemed to add a sort of 'restrictive' effect (at first, but later I found it varies with the record played), as if with them the sound is just a might less in intensity. But so smooth, I suspect that's because there is less 'distortion' with them in. So I crank the volume just a bit more than I'm used to, and wow, it still sounds natural -- not *too* loud as it would through the old cables -- yet with more detail, slam, bass authority and resolution, everything really. Highly recommended.

 

About 25 years ago I blind ABXd single crystal wire (Harmonic Technology Truthink balanced interconnects used as mic cables since thats what mic cables are) with non single crystal -cables that came with Rat Shack #33-3007 mics and Monster M1000 w Neutrik connectors (made by Doug Oade). I could not differentiate, but YMMV of course. I believe Mr. Lee (Harmonic Technology "mastermind") was the first to bring single crystal wire to Stereoland, now he is Acoustic Zen. He believes (see #3 in link) that single crystal is always better(I also had a great conversation with him about 25 years ago before I decide to buy Truthlink), dude knows his metals, but I disagree.
Technical Overview
I could see where some (among those who can differentiate/actually hear differences which I dont think is many) could easily prefer non single crystal wire due to listening preferences and system synergy. Kinda like tubes vs. SS. SS has better numbers, but many prefer the tube sound. In theory, I believe more grain boundaries in the metal could lead to a "warmer" sound over single crystal wire since grain boundaries "smear" the signal.

https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsnano.1c06367

 

I've heard pure silver and silver coated copper, some I did like and some I didn't regardless of the material. I think it is risky to generalize and the best strategy -if possible- is to borrow from the dealer or buy from somewhere where you'll be allowed to return at no cost, or little loss.
If it serves you as some kind of endorsement, but you should keep in mind it is only my general opinion. Most of my favorite cables to this point tend to be made of silver coated copper.

 

200 dollars and under keeps my ophidiophobia in check. Hang on a sec, let me check.....795 dollars for that?!?! My ophidiophobia is on overdrive now . Let me go pop a half dozen Xanax and try to calm down.

 

Which Mogami are you using at present? I just got a pair of 2497 IC's and a 2964 SPDIF.

The SPDIF in particular interests me because in the context of my present system it replaces a 17 and a half times more expensive silver strand cable... and I don't hear a significant difference in clarity or treble sparkle and extension. In fact given the choice I prefer certain aspects of the Mogami's performance so I've opted to use that cable instead.

I haven't had analogue IC's in my system for ages (and yes, I know this thread is about speakers cables ) - the last set I owned were Nordost Heimdalls, which I loved for their sense of providing the utmost transparency. And making allowances for audio memory being what it is... it would be very, very interesting to put those up against these Mogami's because they give me the sense of providing the utmost transparency too? And ideally that's what I want from a good cable... to pass the signal unabridged with as little alteration or omission as possible. Certainly these two seem close enough that I'd happily keep the (vast) difference in cost in my pocket.

And while I do make allowance for the grade of gear I'm using at present (I'm starting over from scratch) I'm an experienced listener who's heard and owned a lot of gear of the years. So while I'm not trying to sound like a know-it-all prick, I have a few clues what I'm listening for. And it's worth noting that I was still using significantly higher priced, super resolving gear when I encountered the first "pro" cable that truly challenged my preconceptions.

So since I came to "pro" cables in reverse order to you as it were, I'd be interested to know what - if any - improvements not differences you find as you spend more. I try my utmost to avoid forming rigid, closed minded opinions about anything. But pro audio cables keep proving themselves to me time and again, so it's getting harder to justify how I'll go back to spending more on the audiophile brands if I can't find real gains. And since I'm starting over I can reject audiophile snobbery and preconceived notions.

I know that generally speaking you get what you pay for - but I also know enough to trust my own senses. And cables in particular seem to be an area where this sort of rationale can pay dividends.

And certainly at lower budgets I would guess there'd be no contest between a pro cable and entry level product offer from the "audiophile" brands... in my experience the latter tend to set the user up on a paywall upgrade path whereas the "no-frills" (I'm trying to stop short of saying no B.S) approach of pro cable makers differs starkly even if they don't make your system look quite as pretty.

 

Good choice, my entire analog signal chain now uses these... well, almost as one of my TT's (the 1200G) still has LC-1's to the phono pre....

I had good cables before, but I've convinced myself of hearing subtle differences where I prefer the 2497's. No "trouncing" going on.

 

Nice.

I agree... I find the common hyperbole of one thing "blowing" another thing out of the imaginary water tiresome. That isn't the case here.

I've simply found that the pro cables I've tried offer a level of performance out of all proportion to cost and certainly at a level commensurate with some fairly high priced cables I've owned - which leads me to believe that perhaps the high priced stuff is just needlessly expensive? And that's more of an indictment on what I now perceive as a sort of gullibility (or at least suggestibility?) on my part and also what I now perceive as a sort of "emperor's new cloths" area of high end audio.

I have no issue with anyone spending their money as they like - and like I said, I try to avoid rigid, closed minded views, so I'm still open to hearing something that could change my mind again - but for now, I'm just happy to be off the high priced cable hamster-wheel.

 

I took a methodical approach over time, I ran three different sets of cables across the chain (which has a few since I run separates AND four TT's ;-)) - the Belden LC-1 (aka BJ), Belden 1505F and the 2497's.

I don't mind being specific and spelling out what I used. Plus, of course there were many cables in my past, I have drawers full of different types that I probably should sell. Some at higher price points than the 2497.

All three cables I compared I could have settled on and be happy with them, there's just something going on with the 2497's, they just feel like they add a small layer of dynamics in the lows and mids, in addition to the transparency you mention. I have accurate equipment, and I feel like the cables aren't robbing anything.