Another cable question


Please don’t respond to this if you are a non believer. Just wanted to know if anyone has had a good experience with silver or silver/ copper blend out from they’ve Dac. Currently using older Acustic Zen absolute copper. There has been a number of members saying good things about silver for digital front ends and I think I,d like to give it a try. Streamer is Aurender N200 using DH labs mirage two feeding Pontus two. Budget is $700 max and it’s seems there are a number of cables in that range, thx in advance and happy New Year!

bikeboy52

Showing 1 response by knotscott

There are lots of variables involved, every situation is different, and it’s also extremely subjective. We can offer opinions and insights on what’s worked in scenarios we’re familiar with, but you’re the only who’s really going to be able to find the final solution through some experimentation.

My only experience with solid silver is that it is indeed brighter sounding by way of somewhat more pronounced upper midrange and treble vs the copper cables I’ve tried. (I haven’t tried a silver coated copper yet) My solid silver cables can be either a blessing or a curse depending on what else is happening in the system. During Christmas my poor speakers get shoved unceremoniously into the corners, and the right speaker ends up behind the Christmas tree, and it audibly obscures output from that speaker in the upper regions. My solution this year was to literally use the solid silver on the right side between the DAC and preamp, and my usual copper cable on the left, and it balanced things out enough that I could at least live with it temporarily...it can make that much of a difference. Now that the tree is gone, I’m finding these solid silver cables are just a bit too much for my tastes, and have gone back to the copper.

There was an upside with the silver, but a little bright can go a long way sometimes was ultimately just a bit over the top for my tastes on this system. The good news is that a nicer set of upgraded copper cables are coming soon for between the amp and preamp...we’ve previously experimented with these and they offered a cleaner smoother sounding treble, which might just pave the way to get the solid silver back between the DAC and preamp....we shall see.

Best of luck on figuring out your sweet spot!