I had the Ag-over-Cu NORDOST FREY thin ribbon cables array. As I changed speakers, the migration to all-Cu commenced …, the preferred metal option is intuitively system dependent .
However, ….
Curiously as I swapped in the comparatively hefty CARDAS CLEAR ICs and CLEAR REFLECTION speaker cables, the highlights in the following published guidance rang true for my system. The speaker wire diameter mattered significantly, not just the choice of metal.
AUDIO: SPEAKER CABLES - From Alan Shaw (owner and designer of HARBETH)
” … So, the moral of the story is this: the most important factor of the loudspeaker cable that you should select is the amount of metal in the cable core. More metal means lower resistance.
If the core is round (as most are) then the correlation is simple: the fatter the diameter of the metal core the better because the electrical resistance between amp and speaker will be lower.
Thin and really thin cores should be avoided regardless of how exotic the metal material is claimed as the lack of metal in the core conductor will increase resistance. That will reduce amplifier damping, effect the frequency response of the speaker and give unpredictable results that will vary from amp/speaker combination.
Do not be fooled by the diameter of the external plastic sheath: what matters is the metal content of the core. The more the better, without exception….”
My take: I haven’t seen many hefty and quality- build silver cables because of the costs. I’m not knocking NORDOST, in their premium lines ( I had them in my prior system as a fine shotgunned speaker cable ) . However , I had less than satisfying results in their lower model lines where metal content was reduced .
Go figger.
