Metal or Carbon Resistors - Which is better?

What resistor sounds best very much depends on application.  After several decades of comparing resistors, I have strong opinions on the subject.  A short summary:

For loads (input, interstage and output), Audio Note 2w silver tantalums.  The 2w silver sounds better than 1w or 1/2w.

For gridstoppers, Riken carbon film (discontinued).

For phono RIAA eq, Vishay bulk foil.

For plate loads and power supplies, Mills wirewound.

I don’t like some of the other resistor types mentioned above such as AMRG and Takman, and I haven’t had any luck with vintage Allen Bradley’s.  However, there is one other type that is a solid second or third choice to my favorites listed above, namely, Dale/Vishay CMF metal foils.  The Dales are cheap and readily available in lots of values.  They have a warm, musical sound with good detail and dynamics.  Take a look inside a Lamm preamp or amp and you will see Dale CMFs throughout.  Same with older Cary amps and preamps.

EMIA attenuators use the same autoformers as Intact Audio.  The EMIA products just put the autoformers in a nice looking box with remote control.  Intact Audio sells the raw autoformers for the DIY market.  Moreover, the autoformers all sound the same regardless of the number of steps.  Well, with one big exception—-there are both copper and silver models.  All of the copper models sound the same; all of the silver models sound the same.

I have the 47-step model and there is a small 1.25db difference between each step.  In my system that easily spans the range I need for my various sources.

There is a website that reviewed resistors for a passive attenuator and it concluded the Audio Note 2w silver tantalums were the best sounding by far; unfortunately they are so expensive it isn’t practical to use them for all steps in a stepped attenuator.  

The review I mentioned is at:
sw1xad.co.uk

If the link doesn’t work, just google “audio note silver tantalum resistor reviews”

Another option is to use an Intact Audio autoformer.  That is the best sounding attenuator I have tried.