Speaker cabels for dark sounding speakers?

nordost is zippy city
or try mapleshade solid core helix

Never heard of dark sounding speakers what are they? 

Cables are not tone controls dump the speaker asap.

Simna, What are your speakers? None of us can help you without that information

The speakers are Tannoy Eaton and they are dark sounding or you might called them a little rolled off.
From my experience all speaker cables "destroys" the sound. More or less. For example, some makes the sound less bright than it should be. Those are not the ones I'm looking for.
Hope you understand my bad English enough to see what I'm trying to say.

@tvad
Actually the sofa is the "big brother" to the easy chair. Just an extra seat to my right, so to speak.
Interesting?

@tvad 
No matter what you think or how your furniture are made, these are exactly the same except for that one has one seat and the other has two. I thought it was common knowledge that if you put more furniture or bigger furniture in a room it will affect the sound in the room.
I can add that when I switched from Supra Ply cables to Kimber 8TC, the sound actually became more open and brighter.
Thank you for wishing me good luck in my "cable quest".

Try a 12AWG silver OFC

simna

I concur with Nordost or any other silver-based cable.

Happy Listening!

It’s always a negative to clean/refine signals and clean/refine dynamics via correcting an offset ...with another offset.

Like stacking different springs. The end point is one where they interfere with one another, the distortions are increased and the actual signal conditions, as a pass through - are less, not more.

Audio, high end audio, as an endeavor, is.... to obtain as clear a window set as possible, and stack them, as perfectly as possible... and then enjoy the quality of view through the stack, as well as it can be enjoyed.

Individual results will vary.

Slight colors or tonalities can be enjoyed, like a set of sunglasses with particular light alterations can be enjoyed.

But ...too many filters stacked, just leads to visual mud. Where one has to fight and work to resolve anything. And what is found, may be false. Colorations. Which filter is the problem? Is it more than one? Do they all have to go? Did I start filtering wrong and then spin off and end up being completely wrong?

Audio is much the same. Less windows stacked means a more true view. Less IS more.

Just try the silver clad wire, and let it settle in a bit.. The speakers IC and source to Preamp and preamp to power amps. Every place you put more silver clad, the brighter it will get.. To the point of BOIL.. The ends can offer a slight tone change, gold will warm it up, copper...tone it down... Silver terminal ends will do a little brighten up AGAIN...

Purely what I've noticed..... No more, no less.

Happy hunting...

Regards

OK. I'll see if I can get some cables with silver and do some listening tests.
But I changed back to the sofa to really understand what is different. The reverberation has clearly changed. So I think I'll try to move the carpet a little so the parquet floor will be a little more exposed. Just to see how it affects the sound.

Thanks for the tip!

Oh come on that's silly. Silver cables? That's going to make no difference.

Your speakers have treble settings don't they? Have you adjusted them?

Your speakers have good directional response but the old Eaton's were light off axis making for low room energy at high frequency. They were intended as monitors not home audio. Not sure about new ones.

No cable is going to fix low total high frequency energy. That needs EQ or room treatment.

Why no more information: What speakers, what amp? how long are the cables? What placement? (distance from alls?)
It may sound dark because you are using the wrong cables!
Specify the required information and I'll tell you how to make it work for you.

Oh come on that’s silly. Silver cables? That’s going to make no difference.


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Yup that’s me, silly.. Yes it makes a difference. If YOU can’t hear it. I understand. But it’s not nice to tell folks what they can hear because you can’t.. Do you understand that. You are RUDE.

Silver clad with a teflon cover, mill spec will work just fine...

He needed an option, for a tonal change. I offered a solution that works VERY well if you know what your doing, and CAN HEAR. Mr Design.. LOL

No regards, rude person...

Tannoy has settings to adjust have you tried using them ?

Well, obviously, if a speaker has treble settings, they should be tried first! 

As to whether anyone believes that silver/coper makes a difference, who cares? If they want mediocre systems due to obstinate, fine, let them. Someone has to be in the bottom half of the distribution of systems, and they do a fine job of it!  :) 

Believing that using silver instead of copper is going to magically impact frequency response of a speaker is what happens when people who don’t understand how things work are influenced by others. Call it power of suggestion, call it placebo effect. You may even believe for a period of time it made a difference but just like a sugar pill won’t cure a cold eventually you realize nope, I am still sick and nope, my speakers still sound dark. The well established properties of materials don't change because some audiophile who does not know better thinks they do.

I don’t go to my mechanic when I break my leg. I also don’t go to my mechanic when I want to understand how the conduction of electricity in a cable works and what the impacts are of different conductor materials. Why not? Because my mechanic is not a physicist or an electrical engineer.


"VERY trained ears when it comes to sonic difference."

The number of times that gets bandied around in the audiophile world is uncountable to the point it has lost meaning. Many audiophiles think they have superior listening ability. Audio reviewers especially think this. They don’t.  They have better than the guy off the street, but in most cases not nearly as good as they think. You also can't hear something that is not there, though you may convince yourself that you do.


If a speaker sounds "dark" it has either an on-axis frequency drop (this one does not appear to), or it has low total energy due to off axis response (this one may depending on the model). As well, this one had treble controls in all likelihood.

A silver cable, plated or otherwise is not going to make any difference to the frequency response of the system, no matter what you or any audiophile may believe. The OP is already using Kimber 8TC cables, which are low inductance, and inductance is a far more important factor in high frequency response than conductor material, insulating material, or any other inconsequential property an audiophile or vendor may invent. Taking some random silver plated or silver cable if anything is going to make the problem worse, not better compared to the 8TC, and is only going to waste the OP’s time and money.

It's probably your sitting position changing. I bought a new couch and cut 2 inches off my speaker stands to get them aligned better with my ears. 

While you are at it, may want to borrow a solid state amp and give it a try.

I think I am looking at the right impedance curve in which case with that amplifier, you may get get an elevated bass response which will make the highs seems dark.

Whether Nelson pass has an EE or not, he understand engineering and he would not use silver wire to tune the sound of his amplifiers. He does appear to be a good businessman so perhaps he would include it to sucker in the gullible, but he does not seem the type.

No, Nelson pass uses REAL ENGINEERING to tailor the sound of his amplifiers, not made up engineering and science. He will be the first to admit he tailors the real (not perceived) characteristics of his amplifiers.

The Op, can go to a doctor when he is seriously sick, or he can go to a faith healer.  Room acoustics, interactions of a particular tube amp and a speaker, listening and speaker positions, that is real medicine.  Silver plated cables is the audio equivalent of a faith healer.


What a weird rant about EE's.  Believe it or not, most major audio companies employ lots of EE's, some of them quite good actually.  Of course, you are likely to find better EE's designing audio stuff at Bose, or Harmon, or Sonos than you are at most boutique audio companies.  If you are smart enough to be a good EE, and you are still an EE, then you probably are not in it for the money anyway.  If it was about money, you would have been a doctor or lawyer or investment banker.


p.s. "Sound engineering" has absolutely nothing to do with electrical engineering. It is not even what most would call engineering, so again weird rant.  Of course, many do quite well working in the acoustics field.

So back to this Nelson Pass, thing. The engineers you have never heard of design the vast majority of the audio products bought today whether by dollars or by units. High end is but a small subset.

OP, at least in my system the use of silver speaker cables made a difference. With my second system in the study, I had a similar problem as yours, the sound was a bit dark (dull?). I swapped the cables with silver ones and things got better - at least in the areas I wanted them to be. Incidentally, I'm using the same cables in a different setup, and now I have the opposite problem ... lol!

Having said that, I don't think you should expect a night and day difference just from switching cables. IME, cables are like using spices to add a bit more flavor, but they can't turn a frozen aisle burger into a steak.

I say give it a shot (silver cables), let them settle in, and then make an informed decision. In the past I have bought based on measurements and 'sound' science alone, and have learned the hard way that just because something measures well doesn't mean it will sound good to my ears, with my equipment, and in my room.

I agree.  See if you can borrow some Nordost Valhalla and have a listen.   If it doesn't work to your satisfaction,  return them...easy.

Jose.

Nordost is amazing cable, but contrary to how 2 posters described it, definitely not "zippy city".

I upgraded from Clear Day silver XLR's to Nordost Tyr 2 about a year ago and one of the changes was a much weightier mid range. Excellent cables, musical, 3 dimensional, and detailed, just not "zippy".

Within the last week I upgraded my Clear Day double shotgun speaker cables and jumpers to Valhalla 2 and Nordost reference jumpers, but they are both still settling in and I cannot yet accurately comment on them except to say I love the evolving improvements so far.

So, it seems that this is the majority opinion: silver is bright, gold is warm and copper soft. Are they describing the sound, or the color of the wire? I don't get it. Is it as simple as imagining the sound in your mind while thinking of the wires color, or is this just a coincidence? 

simna, I agree with your idea of moving the carpet, and anything else your might due to reconfigure the room to accommodate a brighter tone. It is generally accepted, as you can see not by all, that silver cables cast a brighter character over copper ones. This may not always prove true depending on which of the 2 types being compared. In any case trying silver speaker cables might prove beneficial. Hopefully others will chime in with those that most likely will accomplish this.

I also use the Kimber 8TC with my Tannoy Sterlings. My room is treated with absorbers, maybe overly so with the Sterlings which were recently purchased.  I am not about to change anything until I get more acquainted with them.

If your open to changing out caps in the crossover and can solder that could be another alternative and cheaper than buying cables. Clarity cap CMR or on the cheap Sonicaps will pull the sound out from being dark. Silver cables will make it brighter but that is not always better. I use silver and copper interconnects and speaker cables together and very happy with results also with clarity caps in one set of speakers with a Jupiter bypass cap.

koestner355 posts11-12-2020 5:32amSo, it seems that this is the majority opinion: silver is bright, gold is warm and copper soft. Are they describing the sound, or the color of the wire? I don’t get it. Is it as simple as imagining the sound in your mind while thinking of the wires color, or is this just a coincidence?

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Close if you can hear the difference, BUT copper is warm not SOFT.
Gold will soften the tone on copper and silver. GOLD really adds a signature to a silver wire that is gold clad, with either pure silver ends, or pure copper. VERY expensive wire, pure NASA spec..

Now take copper ends and dip the end in a crucible of 99. silver. It will do something different again. You have to connect with screws, if you don’t and SOLDER them, the 4% silver will change the sound AGAIN...

ADD a SC .011 of straight tungsten (99.91) and change it all AGAIN.. Mids open up, Highs will stay, where is the copper? (inside the silver). Yes they do work VERY well.. If YOU listen.. There are folks the can Articulate the sound much better than me. I try to explain without contradiction, but with MY explanation, and experience. It’s pretty common because, I’m a common man, nothing to polished or refined here.. I do wear shoes though..

Pure silver say 99.9 mill spec #12 LOW stand count, not high, and teflon cover, then a poly-vinyl. A slow 1 inch twist Clockwise.. THAT wire will not sound anything like what it will sound like for more than 400 hours, more usually. It really doesn’t like the floor either... a #10 or 8 in silver could take 1000 hours. It is one of the worst if you go moving it around to. It takes a day sometimes to settle back in from a de coupling. If it’s windy forget it.. A day..with no terminal ends and graphene paint.

That wire takes at least 5-6 days on a cooker to just get it to 1/2 that break in time.. YES cookers help to change the way a cable breaks in, and CAN freshen one up.. Not wise to change directions either, listen first, THEN pick the direction and cook, the cable. add your arrows, (they should already be on the cable). HANDLE with extreme care and ASB the cable and tape the ends..

Discharge first THEN work to add new cables.. or work on cables..

Copper, LOL drop it on the floor, good to go. UNTIL you tinker a bit.

As far a Mr Nelson Pass, let me ask him on his, First Watt site. He might answer. I’ve never asked him about his credentials, but I sure have about how to build a device to match components for his amps.. Very nice person..

From 25+ years ago.. until recent. I had a question on a B5 crossover of his, he will answer the question.. That was 2 years ago.. James B (Ampzilla) RIP.. No more answers there... Dennis H of Cary. He uses silver wire as an upgrade.. LOL

Regards

Koestner,

Would blue wire sound cool or sad?

I wonder how people would feel about this test:

https://www.audio-forums.com/articles/interconnect-cable-blind-listening-test.15/


Or this one ...

https://www.stereophile.com/content/minnesota-audio-society-conducts-cable-comparison-tests-0


- listener and speaker position
- make sure your room is not over damped
-is your couch highly absorbent compared to your easy chair?
- possible amp/speaker mismatch

Encountered something similar when we got a larger couch in the living room. Getting a smaller rug actually worked. Brought back some life without sacrificing some control over those first reflections. 

@simna put the chair back in and listen that might give you the answer.

Oh god, here we are again. Science deniers promoting expensive snake oil for auditory hallucinations. 40+ inane responses to an inane OP.
I don’t know why the learned among us have to keep repeating ourselves but here goes. Make sure the cables are cryo-freezed in a brass urn at exactly -63.2 degrees Fahrenheit for 17 days. Also marinated in olive oil to promote proper saturation (because cable saturation is a thing). And break in, cable break in is a thing too - so break them in for three years at monthly graduated volume levels. The cables should be bound in wraps and weaves in a beautiful light magenta color and be at least 2 inches in diameter (resembling a snake from the Amazon). Extremely important also is to make sure the arrows on the cables are pointed in the right direction - otherwise the little electrons get confused about which direction to travel. Lastly, and this is probably the most important to keep in mind, spend at least $20K per meter of cable - otherwise you absolutely cannot consider it either audiophile grade or even hi-fi.
‘Hope that helps.

Problem solved.

Moving the carpet a little gave me a little more parquet floor and I got more reverberation. It actually feels even better now than before I replaced the armchair with the sofa. The bass has been improved and sounds cleaner and it is easier to follow the tones in the bass area. The sofa works a bit like a base trap.

But I will still give silver cables a try when I get a chance.

Thanks for shareing your thoughts. Take care.

What are you current speaker cables? You may try Chord Epic which are silver plated OFC if you want to explore cables. As you have figured out, room furnishing and set up can bring a massive difference. It's good that you moved the carpet and resolved the dark treble issue.