RCA cables silver,gold or copper whats better?

your a better man then me charlie brown if you hear a difference. I would think in the long run there is less maintenance with gold. But copper has the advantage of no plating. Its up to your ears only.

My preference is silver plated copper (because that is what I currently am using). I will admit though the different manufacturers do not always have the same sound characteristics with a given type of wire. In other words I have heard both great and bad copper and silver but not really gold. To me personally gold is a little too warm sounding in cables for me. Maybe because I have a tube integrated.

Just my opinion

For me it seems to depend. I find silver to be more detailed and copper to have more body and bass. I mix and match per component.

Pure silver cables all the way. They do sound better than copper, imo...at least on my system (Siltech Cables). Look at cabling as a vehicle to modify the tonal characteristics of your system. Some systems may fair better with cooper, other's with silver or a combo of both....only you can decide.

I have had good success using both silver and copper. It does pay, however, to carefully evaluate products from various manufacturers to see what works best in a given system. The cables to steer clear of is from DakiOm. The guy that sells these things is basically a 'raving lunatic'. It's not hard to see that from reading his rather lengthy ads. What he has to offer are products that add an artificial warmth into a system at the expense of everything else that audio enthusiasts value.

Thanks for the tip.Unfortunately a raving lunatic will feel right at home here in the audio world.As you know there are more than a couple[see threads].Cheers,B

each metal has different electrical conductivity. silver generally sounds fastest, and most resolving, copper less so, and gold the least.

the purity and other variables are important, such as connectors, so there is no absolute answer.

i think that silver presents a challenge in the treble, either geometry, dielectric, quality, or gauge need to be manipulated to avoid excess treble energy.

i personally favor gold, given a decent design.

I'm torn between silver plated copper and copper plated silver

Silver plated uranium with copper connectors. Incredible sound.

I'm with 4est. I find mixing helps. I have one cable that is silver-clad solid copper with copper connectors. These have the best HF extension in my system. Another cable is solid silver with copper connectors. These have very similar sound to the other cable but are shifted down in frequency. Better bass and lower midrange but not as extended up top.

Silver cable with silver connectors can be a very vivid presentation to say the least. Too much for me. But the same cable with copper ends took the edge away and gave some depth. I haven't found a cable or connector using gold that didn't sound a little too dark for my taste.

I use upsidasium plated wire.

The sound seems to float in mid-air.

Hybrids. UP-OCC copper and silver in the same cable. Stranded and solid core wires of various awg. No single metal can "do it all".

Very interesting, Bill. I have discovered that Resolutium does wonders with low-level detail and dynamic contrasts.

What's the big deal? You find a cable you like and then look to see what/how it's made. Might surprise folks to find out what they end up with.