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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?

billstevenson

Showing 3 responses by lewm

lewm
12,522 posts
 

If copper was silvery and silver was coppery in appearance, many would reverse their opinions of the respective colorations.

lewm
12,522 posts
 

Are we talking about chassis wiring, tonearm wiring, or ICs? In ICs, the geometry is very important. It determines the reactive nature of the IC (capacitance and inductance). That affects frequency response and also characteristic impedance. Same goes for complex speaker cables. Chassis and tonearm wires are usually a single run of whatever conductor, unless you’re using Litz wire. It’s not just a matter of copper v silver.

lewm
12,522 posts
 

Nordost use a lot of silver-plated copper wire which they may loosely call “silver”. I found Nordost silver-plated copper, and in fact all silver plated copper to be bright if not shrill, and I never touch the stuff. Pure silver or pure copper, either is far better IMO.

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