I found that inexpensive cables made from copper vs silver are easily differentiated by the brightness of silver and the warmth of copper. But as you get into higher end cables the categories blur. The best, relaxed… non-bright cables I have heard were Nordost Odin 2… like really really highly detailed copper…but all silver.
Copper vs. Silver tonearm wire
The subject of tonearm wire was touched on in a related thread on tonearms. Long standing friend rauliruegas strongly advocates silver. I tried it and switched back to copper. I need to re-wire my HW-40 and because my hands are getting shakey with age, must now delegate the task so I want to get it right. VPI told me today that their upscale wire, Nordost, used to be silver, but they switched back to copper because too many people found the silver to be too bright. That was exactly what my impression was when I last tried silver. Thoughts?