Silver if your components are laid back, polite, soft and you want a seat in row "D". Copper if you want a a fuller richer sound from leaner solid state or bright-lean tubes(some KT88 amps). Copper has more weight in the bass, fuller midrange and slightly slower pitchin general. Also puts in row "M". Silver is faster, tighter-leaner bass, can tip up in the upper midrange and lean out the voices too much. These are gross generalizations, and some copper designs can sound a lot like silver in the bass and in speed of pitch. Listen to mellow copper like MIT, Monster, neutral copper like Cardas(one of my favorites) and various silver designs. The one that makes your foot tap on a wide range of music is the one. Perhaps Brad will tap a little too. The bottom line is there are a lot of good designs in both copper and silver. Listen before you buy... Jeff