Copper and silver cables and bass response

Depends on your gear.
My old Tannoys loved the solid silver speaker wires,the Grand Veenas did not.
Nor did the Grand Veena's like any of the stranded copper speaker wires I had at my disposal.

What has proven to be the best speaker wire for my Grand Veenas is a bit of DIY.

I use solid core copper 10 guage Romex in combination with the solid core silver.

I won't try any one's intelligence with reasons why this works,that it does to my ears is all that matters.

Maybe it will work for the OP too.

>>12-18-09: Tef8568

In general, copper tends to sound more warm, rich, and full bodied.......

Silver, in general, tends to sound more open, airy, extended, light, and allows a greater higher frequency extension (treble) to pass through....<<

Complete and total BS.

You need to listen more and read less.

You can not measure this supposed extra hi or low frequency content since it does not exist. Your just confusing capacitance and resistance and how system reacts to such. This is the main reason cables sound dif from one another. Toss in system interactions. RF pollution etc. I do use hi quality cabling but I do not fall for the BS the cable industry puts out.

I do have a cable cooker and my Kimber KCAG sounded better after a week burning! That was 6 years ago. I reburn them in every year for a day or 2. Mike

Wow. Thanks for the responses. Mike

Hello,

In general, copper tends to sound more warm, rich, and full bodied; which is why Dennis Had of Cary Audio loves the Jensen copper foil in oil capacitors for some of their tube gear. Copper can tend to fatten up, enrich, and flesh-out the sound in the mids and highs or tame the etched chalk-like sound of an aluminum ribbon tweeter or a titanium dome tweeter, etc.

Copper, electrically speaking, is slightly less conductive than silver, which is the best conductor due to its conductivity or lowest resistance per foot or given diameter, etc. Copper is second. Gold is somewhere down the list but is used for anti-oxidation purposes for signal transfer primarily and since it is also softer, it is more malleable and ductile to be slightly compressed to allow a tight fitting connection.

Silver, in general, tends to sound more open, airy, extended, light, and allows a greater higher frequency extension (treble) to pass through; all of which give the silver conductor a perceivable increased or greater detail as more high frequency content is being passed; especially upper harmonics. It can also sound hard, harsh, tinny, thin, hollow, weak, lacking bass or midbass or both, etc. This is largely due to the larger amount of high frequency content baing passed in comparison, or in proportion to let's say, the rest of the audio signal being reproduced.

I personally like copper overall. Hope this helps.

Placement may vary from one system to the next.I would try them in different positions and see what sounds best in your system.♫

The KCAG is a well balanced overall cable. However Kimber's Select series in the silver hybrid (KS-1126) would provide you much more detail, air, liquidity and bass. Their KS-1130/36 are even better but are pricey. The Select series also uses their Black Pearl Silver.

Feel free to email me for more information on these as I use them in my system.

I have to agree that it depends..I have had copper i/cs on my amp-pre that sound lightweight and silver that sounds perfect ( and visa/versa ). I don't think there is a hard fast rule..I do think from my experiance Silver tends to be more relaxed ..I have found that a good mix of both is the best solution for me.......

There are differences in bass impact between various cables, but the perceived differences have nothing to do with whether the conductors are silver or copper.

You know what would be interesting is how good are they after they get cooked on a burner? It usually makes a big difference even with long used cables. Actually sometimes the change is pretty dramtic with older cables, it is amazing how good some can sound after a whack on an audiodharma. Email me, I'll throw them on my cooker for you for a few days if you'd like.