Triode Wire Labs

Email him — he seems pretty responsive.

I did think of that but was apprehensive, some folks don’t like nosey questions about their products, some builders don’t even bother to answer emails. I won’t mention names.

I had the same question, and just got a response from Pete a few weeks ago regarding his metal choice:

"To answer your question, the copper used is an extremely high grade copper that has been cryogenically treated, which greatly improves the sonic characteristics. In my experimentation with silver, I’ve found that it’s a bit "tipped-up" in the treble region. At first listen, you can hear many details, but it becomes a bit unnatural and fatiguing, since it’s unbalanced sounding. The copper I use with cryogenic treatment is a very natural and real sounding, with deeper bass response (than silver), while still remaining balanced-sounding."

Maybe he gets it from *Cardas? In my case I kept the "other" cable that was made with silver, and returned his. Now to be fair the TWL was a fine sounding digital cable, it looked fantastic, and it was 1/3 the price of the silver one, and Pete was exceptional and professional; the customer service was outstanding. However at the end of the day some are pushing the envelope, and many have found a way to use ultra pure silver, or blend metals to get the resolution of silver while still retaining the smoothness of copper in their cables, and some are just sticking to what they are familiar with, which is fine.

*Note that Cardas does not use OCC copper, but he claims his is better, and a few others are quite satisfied with Cardas cables. So I don’t think it is as simple as "OCC sounds like this and non-OCC sounds like that" as some may claim.

I've gone through a lot of cables over the years.

For the last couple of years I've settled on 2 pairs (1m & 1.5m) of balanced Triode Labs cables, plus a balanced (1.5m) digital cable.

I'm not feeling the need to look further.

As always in this hobby IMHO, YMMV.

PS: I have no idea what materials he uses to build his cables.

PPS: I rarely endorse products. Too many variables.

Triode Wire Labs makes excellent cables, especially when you consider their cost.

Have I found better - yes, for about 6 - 10 times the price.

And for the record, I have no affiliation with Triode Wire Labs.

I believe the American Series power and speaker cables are made from stranded, tinned copper Western Electric KS13385 wire.  This review provides some insight into how the cables are made and the other reviews of TWL wire that you can find on line are mostly aligned in describing their house sound.

Thank you for the responses, they are very helpful. On the Western Electric wire, that would be very surprising as well as interesting. That would give his cables a “Dueland” type performance perhaps, but takin to a higher level by his design innovations. 

“That would give his cables a “Dueland” type performance perhaps, but takin to a higher level by his design innovations.” 

Yup, that is about right.  Read the reviews.  Also consider his newer cables innovatively push the boundaries of his original designs so look at those newer products as well, depending on your budget.

I've had many different cables nearing 50 years of this hobby.

Kimber, Van den Hul, Merlin, QED, Atlas, Chord.

My current favourites

Mad Scientist; Black Magic Ultra power cords, Black Magic Ultra USB cables

Audience AU24SX RCA interconnects

Tubulus Argentus I2S cable

Auditorium A23 speaker cables

And...

Triode Wire Labs Freedom ethernet cables