Silver Speaker Cables

After experimenting with many various Audioquest silver and copper speaker cables - silver will render significantly more detail for sure. And that detail increase will be weighted more in favor of higher frequencies. But it won’t be strident, harsh, or splashy. And it doesn’t hurt bass nor body, unless you use too small a gauge - but that can be a real problem because of silver’s high cost. The cables that mix both pure silver and pure copper wires can have a lovely tonal balance. My preferences have always been either pure silver or a mix with mostly (> 50%) silver. The new prices on AQ silver cables are stratospheric. But good used deals on older silver models do come up (Wildwood, WEL Signature, Kilimanjaro, Everest, K2, Obsidian, KE-6). Sometimes REALLY good deals. Keep in mind a 6 ft pair of Everest has a POUND of high purity silver in it. 

It’s a very similar deal with the AQ interconnects, copper vs. silver. Except there are no hybrids in their IC lines. The lower end silver interconnects (Cheetah, Niagara, Wind) do have less body and weight than the higher-end silver cables.

If your system is already bordering on too bright or edgy, adding silver will definitely not help. Copper can help keep it under control. BUT better would be to resolve the balance issue in your system and then add silver cables to get the most of it :)

I think any differences heard are so miniscule per dollar spent, you’d be better off buying better components than changing a cable.

When swapping components in the ~10 - 20K MSRP range, the differences are significant but matching considerations with the other components dictate whether the resulting system configuration is good or bad. Swapping copper for large gauge solid silver speaker cables provides me a "yeah that’s better" reaction with all the "good" system configurations. It’s not that copper sounds bad, but silver gives more lifelike detail. That, for 2K - 4K in used deals, was well worth it to me - the next level up in components is not going to be achievable for that little extra amount.

@raindog911 

I've swapped Fire IC with Colorado (older version of Earth) and yeah the difference is striking! The Fires and that WEL phono cable are fantastic. I've been curious to try William Tell Silver biwire, but sticking with the older large gauge silver cables for now - swapping to big silver cables on speakers was my biggest cable wow moment ever. 

Try Vogue Audio 12 awg Pure Silver Speaker Cables, Power Cables, and Interconnects.

Isn’t 12 AWG solid silver something like a half-pound of silver per 2m pair? Kind of hard to believe their prices, with such high raw material cost leaving a VERY slim margin for processing, labor and other materials. But, if that’s legit - then bravo to Vogue! You certainly won’t get that anywhere else for near the price point.

EDIT: Their website has recently been updated with the following, which can explain slow email responses:

Vogue Audio operations are closed until October 1, 2022 due to Category 3 Hurricane Ian.

I bought some of Vogue Audio’s speaker cables and after receiving them, I discovered they are actually stranded copper with silver substance filling the voids between the strands of copper. After I contacted them about it, they changed their website description to read: “singular multicore bonded silver” but still with no mention of copper.

I’m not saying their speaker cables won’t sound great in your system. That is for you to decide. But don’t be mislead to believe they are 100% pure silver.

I’m hoping they change their website description again to be more accurate, but they are currently dealing with the aftermath of hurricane Ian.

Wow!! Thanks for reporting your findings, and seriously shame on Vogue Audio, wtf! When I looked at the site a week ago I saw no mention nor indication of the cables containing copper content, other than their listed prices seeming too low to absorb the cost of even raw silver, much less premium OCC wire (or whatever)!

@twoleftears

Thanks, I definitely missed that information in my first pass. I just don’t understand why one would refine silver to 7N’s and THEN alloy it with copper?! Also, the now claimed composition of 60% silver + 40% copper still leaves seemingly razor thin margins for the raw material costs versus completed cable prices (particularly 11 or 12 AWG speaker cables).

The magnified OCC copper grain structure pictures are the exact same used elsewhere, including on Outlaw Audio’s website since around year 2000 (where I first learned about OCC wire).

The "bonded" wire process seems at least vaguely reminiscent of LAT International’s "SilverFuse" process (bathing copper cores in silver to make a near alloy). LAT is now defunct. I wonder if the SilverFuse process was picked up and rebranded?

Anyways, I would feel mislead if I had previously bought these cables. Not a good vibe. 

I would restate that large-gauge silver cables (AQ Kilimanjaro, Everest, Wildwood - though the latter are hybrid, they have the equivalent of at least 11 AWG solid silver content) sound very different and much better than smaller-gauge silver (AQ KE-4, SR Foundation). Large gauge silver doesn't have any problems with being too lean, tipped-up, lacking warmth, or having anemic bass. The sonic difference is big; the problem is cost, and actually getting real silver content - not plated / clad / fused / "bonded" etc. The AQ’s are easy to open up and see all the discrete silver wires.