Copper vs. Silver tonearm wire

I’m pretty sure that not all silver is bright. But which one? You can take a chance and see if you get bright silver. Or you can play it safe and get a good copper wire. There’s no right or wrong in copper or silver. You like copper better so go with copper.

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.

I am with @artemus_5 on silver. It can be different with different systems. I play it safe for the most part on the analog side and use copper. Cardas in my tone arm. DH Labs BL-1 feeding my Phonos. 

I like bright!

My VPI is hardwired at the junction box with DH Labs Pro Studio silver plated copper.

I use pure silver in other places and can't really tell the differences from the Pro Studio.

Copper though is for sure less bright and warmer.

The ultimate impression made to date from a Internal Wand Wire and one that eventually ended up as a Continuous Wire has been my experiencing PC Triple C.

If using RCA Phono Connectors, Low Eddy Connectors on Wires and Chassis is the Icing, Cherry on Candles the cake, the first impressions are that first mouth full of sweetness.   

An old wives tale that silver is brighter than copper! Believers should do some blind listening tests. Without such tests it is just anecdotal.

This goes back in my memory to the pale yellow Van den Hul speaker cables from the 80s which used stranded silver-plated copper. Man, they were etched with a golden sheen.

An old wives tale that silver is brighter than copper!

I'm in 100% agreement with @lewm. There is something else that I hear from sliver wire that has not yet been mentioned here and that is leanness. To my ear silver wire has a lot less meat on the bone, meaning lean sounding. One person that I know is willing to accept that leanness to get the big increase in detail he is getting with an Audioquest Angel interconnect on his turntable.

@jasonbourne71 

VdH experimented with all sorts of strange insulation.  Wood, ceramic beads, you name it.  I’m not really a “wire guy”, being more on the side of proper gauge, quality insulation, straight runs, and making sure you don’t have a rats’ nest of touching/overlapping wires, or wires running close parallel, but instead crossing wire at 90 degrees

That said, the VdH interconnects would definitely impart a sound, or rather a tone, to the music.  Kind of a tubey, warm, sound.  Whether someone like that, is a mattter of taste.

Made me play with the idea that it is not so much the metal or metals in the wire that people are hearing, but that different metals interact with the insulating substrate differently.

That would finally make the wire fights people have make much more sense, as there is very little convincing science or testing to back up people’s claims.

But say, silver reacting differently to (name your insulation) than copper and getting a different result? Sure I could see that.

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.

Personally I have always had Copper, the difference size and number of strands and insulation.

For a friend I installed two Vintage Micro Seiki MA-505S which was/is their silver wire 'upgrade' version.

I'm not sure if it is solid silver or silver coated copper, in any case they sound great to me. (never a bright or thin thought in my or my friend's mind)

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. 

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

@billstevenson  : Silver  Zavfino is way different than the Audio Note UK silver litz wire .

Any kind of audio wire in any audio system link is system dependent and owner MUSIC/sound priorities.

R.

Hi Raul,

At your suggestion I visited the Audio Note UK website.  Acquiring the material would be easy. Then I spoke with my dealer.  The dealer is trusted and important because I am no longer competent to perform the work myself.  With age my hands shake.  Anyway, the dealer discussed the matter with VPI and the decision was made today to send the arm to VPI.  So it will be done with Nordost wire.  Many thanks anyway.

Bill

Good,

R.

Silver is bright, copper is warm. Ask the electrons, they know.

In my opinion, silver is just more revealing