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Copper v. Silver IC sound

I think most would agree that there is a trend for copper IC's to give a fuller midrange at the expense of some transparency, and for silver to give a pure extended top end while sounding a bit lean elsewhere. Some people will "mix" their IC's, say, using silver from source to preamp, then copper from preamp to amp. My question is: In this example, could one "lose" the warmer midrange in the first silver run, such that it could not be "recovered" in the second copper run? Conversely, could an initial copper run "reduce" the highest frequencies, such that they would not be "available" to the silver cable during the second run?
Or, are all the frequencies always carried along equally by most silver/copper IC's, with the final "presentation" of mids versus highs determined by the last cable in the system? Obviously I need to just try the experiment, but I don't have all the cables on hand, and I'd like to hear the experience and opinion of others. Thanks.
ral

Showing 2 responses by rcrump

rcrump
427 posts
 
Ral, the differences you have found between silver and copper ICs tend to blur once both are treated to a month long treatment on a MOBIE which runs a 1K 15v square wave through the ICs into a 5K load.....I have done comparisons of solid core silver and solid core copper in the same gauge with copper having a polyurethane coating and silver having a teflon extrusion over it. Same geometry, connectors, solder etc....Silver was four nines purity and copper was better than six nines as it was continuous cast copper.......Sonic differences? The bulk of the difference was in the lower mids/upper bass which had the copper allowing more mud through sweetening up the sound throughout....I found the silver more to my liking used with analog and the copper allowed the digital to sound less "busy" than the silver.....We are talking really slight differences here, but without the treatment on the MOBIE the silver could take the wallpaper off the walls in the upper mid/highs and was really thin in the lower mids/upper bass in comparison to the copper.....Bottom line is that copper will break in pretty well within the voltages and currents in a hifi system and not change much as respects frequency balance, but silver will not and that is the horror of silver......

Bob Crump
TG Audio/CTC Builders/DDR Mfg
rcrump
427 posts
 
Jallen, sorry you had problems with my methods, but this is as close as I could get given what I had available to me.....Incidentally, polyurethane is enamel and no additional dielectric is necessary as this is commonly referred to as "magnet" wire.....Also, I normally put sandwiches not wire in polyethylene and perhaps you mean heatshrink AKA polyolefin?
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