FYI, this post was made 9 years ago.
Silver cables
I am interested in purchasing silver rca cables with a budget of around $100.00-$200.00 for the pair. I have not seen many pure silver cables in that range with the exception of some offerings from Soundsilver and Darwin's original cables, but Darwin's have jumped quite a bit in price recently. Any suggestions, or any experiences with Soundsilver's offerings or any other silver cables in my price range . All suggestions/critiques will be greatly appreciated.
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Gold, platinum, Palladium Silver,copper, ! Which one them is the best signal carrier ? if you know the answer please do let me know because over the last 40/50 years Involved as serious music listener both analog and digital ( approx 35 hours a week) tried radio shack to extortionately priced interconnects and speaker cables, Yes I totally agree that cables do makes a difference and yet every cable they do have their unique characters , some Audio pre or power amps they make not like above mentioned different materials some they do As we all synergy is very important as well as room acoustics, also realised that SET amps are less fussy to make good marriage, all above mentioned different materials cables but PP/ and SS Amps slightly different issues I've experienced, never tried Hybrid amps therefore no opinion on that, most important thing is, if your system's interconnects are all copper ! and yet speakers cables are , silver or gold even platinum , or palladium results could be negative it is all depends what we believe and what we hear ? as well as what we can afford after all I've settled well executed well burnt Copper cables. ( well known cable designers like Yamamura who baked his copper cables high temperature stone made owens in italy highly expensive but amount of labour and skills required to make those copper cables it may be worth it .) |
I compared the Tempo silver cables to Amadi as Ischronism was very kind to let me try them. They are very good ic's with superb detail retrieval and smooth sound. In the end I find the Amadi silver ic's more to my liking. They are just as resolving, but with a more powerful bottom end and more natural tone. The Amadi ic's have more body and weight and convey a more full bodied, natural sound. This was what I found in my system which consists of; TRL Dude preamp Thor TPA 30 mono amps ...... Modified Coincident TVIII speakers.....modified Lampizator dac w/Empirical Audio Offramp |
Nonoise, I have been using Tempo SC's since the inception of my system. I also use the same Tempo IC's (XLR-RCA, pre to amps, wanted to refrain form adaptors) To be fair, I had not compared any others in these two positions. I am very happy and am happy that you are happy and happy to spread the happiness. Enjoy |
Well, I've finally broken in my Tempo Electric silver speaker cables and yes, they are da bomb. My Mapleshades have been supplanted (they put up a good fight) but when there is a clear winner the title has to be passed. The performance increase is on the level of the Darwins Sivler ICs I have. It took a while for them to break in but I had no idea just how big an improvement they'd be. In a few hours my review of them should post under 'cable reviews' so feel free to check them out. It only goes to show that you don't have to spend big bucks to get big results. All the best, Nonoise |
RE: Darwin Cables... Hi Minilogo and others. Sorry I caught this discussion late but I did want to clear up one thing regarding Darwin Pricing. Our original Darwin Silver IC was introductory marketed at $195 as a strategy simply to get the cable heard and reviewed by as many people as possible. The actual price was always $295. We have on occasion run sales for $245. If you do see a sale on a Darwin Cable it is a legitimate sale and will end when we say it will. We sometimes have B Stock and prototypes on sale so it as always worth a call to us. We do understand budgets and feel our Darwin Silvers are reference quality in their own right. If you check our site you will find any number of cases in which our cables are beating some big names at 5-10 times the price. Happy New Year to all! Tony Bender, Darwin Cable Company |
Sonic_genius, not to argue but the point that Tempo Electric makes is that after 4 nines, it doesn't really matter since it's the softness of the silver that matters. I used to work for a bank that dealt in metals as tradable commodities and 3-5 nines silver was about as pure as you could get. In fact, 4 nines was about as pure as any metal traded at the time. I remember taking Canadian Maple Leafs and making them stick together with little, if any pressure. Try that with a Krugerrand (too much copper). Metallurgy has made advances but when it comes to audio, copper and silver as conductors has been used for quite some time with great results. The softer the metal, the less chance of fractures, hence better signal purity. Time will tell next week when I get my speaker cables from Tempo Electric. All the best, Nonoise |
"According to Tempo Electrics' website, 4 nines silver it about the best you can get unless you work for NASA and have deep pockets." Not true. There are sources in Taiwan and China that make 6 and 7 nines wire. Harmonic Tech and Acoustic Zen source from these companies. You can contact them for more information. |
Any other thoughts out there on Soundsilver as Evank's comments seem quite promising. Thank you. I used Soundsilver's 'harmony' ICs (mix of silver and gold) until recently. Great cables for the price. Sound is tipped up to give a sense of openess. Bass is decent but the harmonic envelope is not dense and rich as it is with my current copper cables. Transparency is good but not great. Stewart is a great guy to deal with and I believe he has a 30 day return policy. If I were you, I'd also try Clear Day's silver IC's. His speaker cables are outstanding and I'd bet his IC's are very good as well. 'Paul has a good return policy as well. |
Ok, please read my review of Amadi cables. He makes the Maddie Signature which sometimes go up on auction. They are world class and will outperform silver cables costing several thousand. I have heard these vs some of the popular cables listed here and the gap to get to the level of sonic joy of the Maddie is wide, very wide. You can contact the builder through one of his Agon ads. No doubt they are the best silver cable possible anywhere near your budget. He is humble and just flies under the radar. Philip will let you test and is patient. Good luck. |
Nonoise very recently began a thread asking about Tempo Electric cables which I had answered in very high favor of. Had that thread been deleted??? Joseph Levy constructed me a pair of Speaker Cables and Interconnect Cables of which I have been using with two pairs of Wavelength Amplifiers (300B & 45) and Beauhorn Virtuoso Speakers 106db I am extremely happy with both pairs of cable's performance and Joseph's ultra fine customer service! |
According to Tempo Electrics' website, 4 nines silver it about the best you can get unless you work for NASA and have deep pockets. They go on to state that it's the softness of the silver, not the purity, that matters. As for me, I just ordered 8' of 16 gauge pure silver cables for under $380. They've been using the same source for some time now, here in the good old USA. All the best, Nonoise |
I could hear the difference when I tried silver cables. Clearer and sharper. I disturbed me to know that the type of metal made a difference. I subsequently upgraded to silver throughout, and I am very happy with my sound. My interconnects are AudioQuest AudioTruth Diamond X3 and my speaker cable is AudioQuest Dragon. I noticed the price of silver went up substantially in later years and cable manufacturers seemed to switch away back to copper and silver coatings. |
I use Clear Day solid core silver cables and they are nothing short of fantastic. I was using Morrow SP-6 which cost a lot more than the Clear Day. The Clear Day blows the Morrows away. An 8' pair of solid core silver cables price is $135.00. Visit their website and speak with Paul. He is the nicest guy and very upfront and accomodating. He will let you audition them and will give you excellent advice. www.cleardaycables.com |
I purchased Stagger Silver Solids and am very happy with them -$150 for a one meter pair - just Google them Very transparant with no harshness - just glorious deep bass and amazing detail There is also Signal Cable that use a silver/copper alloy at $100 per meter - PLASTICO, a fellow member has them and found them to be very good Drop him a note - he will let you know what they are like Based on his feedback I have just ordered their Silver Resolution power cable made from the same silver/copper alloy. Regards |
Sonic is right. I've just ordered some silver speaker wires from Tempo Electric and they have the most reasonable prices I've encountered. An 8' pair set me back about $380 which is almost double your limit but considerably less than what others charge. In fact, they're only a touch above spot prices so I don't know how they make any real money on them. They seem to make them for the love of audio. All the best, Nonoise |
Signal Cable produces excellent cables at very reasonable prices. |
