@williewonka,
Thank you for the elaborate and detailed response. Your description of the cables with a Teflon outer jacket makes me think of my own custom length Tempo Electric silver ICs with oversized Teflon jackets. The ends are silver WBTs. I use these cables between the preamp and amps. Have been using them for about 14 years now. My default IC for German Octave MRE130, Bryston 4BSST, and now McIntosh MC2301 amps.
Interestingly, my experience using silver and copper ICs started years ago with OEM Neotech cables. A dealer I met had a variety of Neotech OEM spools laying around and made me several incarnations of these cables when I asked him for some samples. I thought the copper Neotech ICs with copper WBTs sounded the most accurate on triangles and on mid range brass sounding instruments. The silver Neotechs with silver WBTs sounded exactly as others have experienced,,,sounding more zippy on the high end, but, at the same time, I felt as if the mid triangle was nearly, or the same as the copper, but the highs seemed to be a little more emphasized. I believe this perceived sound difference is why some prefer one type of cable over the other (individual gesmach and system composition). I spent months going back and forth until I just stayed with the silver cables.
The silver and copper Neotech cables had been my reference point over other cables I have tried for many years. I felt like generals kicking out lieutenants from briefings when vendors came over to demonstrate their high end cables, and I stated, system sounds worse, not interested. For me, thou shall not tell me that I need to allow for cable break in to hear any differences. One should invariably hear something or not, simple as that, and the quality of playback should not sound less, or cause you to perceive it sounding worse. Some vendors may even say that your cables you own are so bad, that your ears need to adjust to the new cables. Let’s not go down that rabbit hole.
Recently, I went against the grain of simple cables and ordered Audioquest Fire XlRs between the phono amp and preamp and ordered Analysis Plus Apex Silver phono cable. The Audioquest replaced my Neotech silver ICs and the Analysis Plus replaced my Silver Breeze phono cables with silver WBTs. The Silver Breeze is a simple silver wire with minor outer shielding. So far, all seems to be very quiet with some noticeable improvement in low level details. The Audioquest Fires will stay in place for a while and I will swap in the Neotech silver ICs between preamp and phono to see if I perceive anything glaringly different. If not, it is a shame that simple cable designs, such as pure copper or silver core with an oversized outer Teflon jacket are not more readily spoken of. I do follow the DIY community in another forum, but, that seems like it’s the Underground, LOL.
Ciao,
Audioquest4life
