Let's talk about Silver...
We got off on a short tangent in another discussion about the merits of silver in cables, but we did not want to derail that conversation. So I thought I would start a general discussion where folks can share their experiences, and opinions of course, with silver cables. This can include solid silver, silver plated or alloys, wire, connectors, analog, digital etc.
The knee jerk reaction in the audio world is to say that silver is bright, and in some cases that may be true, but I think it is not a universal truth. I am currently trialing some solid silver interconnects, and I have had some good success with silver in the digital realm. Please share your experience, and opinions of course.
I have some bespoke silver connectors that I bought from a retired engineer who builds them at home. Helped with dull sounding gear- Lexicon,Arcam CD players etc. Worth a try, before you replace the unit..... I also had Silver fuse jumpers in a pair of Magnepan's. Sounded great till I melted a tweeter........ |
@erik_squires You mention Wireworld Cables, did you find them problematic? I ask because they are highly regarded as good for the money cables and neutral. |
For me and the digital IC between my streamer and DAC, silver made significant improvements. A friend loaned me his Clearer Audio Silver-Live Optimus Reference cable to be my reference as I compared to others. The CA was almost analog sounding when I compared streaming to vinyl. Lesser cables like the Audioquest Cinnamon and Carbon were bright/harsh and lacked the realism of CA cable. I wanted to get a CA cable but am unsure about that company. I emailed them several times from two different emails over a month and never got a response. I also had no luck with their phone. I continued to search elsewhere and got an Audioquest Diamond. The Diamond offers the same smoothness and realism and the bass was a bit faster/cleaner so I found my new cable. Diamond is all silver while the Cinnamon is 1.25% and Carbon is 5%. The CA spec sheet says the pos lead is pure silver while the others are silver plated over copper. That is the main variable in this so for at least this particular cable....silver made all the difference for me. |
@fthompson251 - Not problematic in the sense of reliability, but over time I've found that many highly regarded audio cables are essentially subtractive in some form or another. In my experience with WW, which was mid-level speaker and up to Gold Eclipse IC's, they were very subtractive in the mid to treble area. Imaging improved, at the expense of overall musical energy. I can imagine with some speakers this would work well, and with some electronics which sound lean otherwise this could also be a good thing, but I've found playing those games exhausting and expensive. The DH Labs/Connex pure silver IC's and Mogami speaker cables solve all my problems without giving me more. |
