Dave_b,
Actually from reading your post I do not think we disagree- at least not on live music. I was not implying live un-amplified music sounds cool or lacking in harmonic over tones. My reference to warm and sunny days vs. cool days was merely a metaphor for the vast differences I hear when visiting different venues of live music or listening to different types of instruments. The example of horn sections relates to the mad dynamics I hear in live music and the "bite" they have when heard live. Or an amplified blues band and it's raw and sometimes edgy nature- hardly "audiophile" qualities but when that's the artistes intention, and if that's what's in my recordings, then that's what I want to hear otherwise I'll be throwing out other details, like subtle inflections from a harp, or the reverberant nuances of a live piano.
A light transparent warmth that does not mask detail, nuance, or dynamics and sound staging but allows me to enjoy my extensive music collection is what I seek and get from my current system- previously I had an all Valhalla system that "spotlighted" upper frequencies at the expense of the mid-range and bass. These cables were also harmonically "lean" whereas the new Tesla cables are anything but and yes, they are silver and silver alloy hence throwing my hat into this ring. With the Valhalla's in my system I enjoyed listening to less then half my music collection- a silver cable, and a horse of a different color you might say.
I feel there are just too many variables related to the final sound of a cable to make blanket statements like "silver bad, copper good." Dielectric, geometry and shielding all play their part and it is the final interaction of perhaps dozens of variables that create the net “sound” in any cable. For example, my cables have two completely different "sounds"- one when the active shields are turned "on" and another when they are turned "off." Therefore, it would be a gross over simplification to place the credit or blame on any one variable, like conductor material, dielectric, shielding, etc since we are listening to a net result of all these variables at once when making any definitive conclusions.
I also agree with you on Redbook CD's- how much better our ten year old CD's sound today when played in a system with modern digital playback and cables compared to ten years ago.
