What makes a better phono cable ?

Jmcgrogan2
Your comment is so true but somewhere in my past travels,I heard that solid core silver with low capacitance makes for a better phono cable because of the very low signal transfer.Is this not correct?

Good Phonocables should show some Physical knowledge and low capacity. Most don't have a dedicated "Phono" Cable, they re-brand a normal NF Cable, double the price and that's it.
I did a Phono Cable comparison some time ago and there are big differences among them, independent from price (when I remember I had here Siltech, Kondo, Cardas Golden Cross (?), KSL-Vz, Graham-70 (?, the best from him), XLO Signature, PAD Venustas, and some other brands I forgot).
Most cables - in general - have own" characters" and are used to compensate or to support something in the main System. That makes it difficult to "recommend" because no one knows what "priorities" are asked.
Some are shielded, some not, some have good connectors, some not, some have developed a separate Phono cable, others say, they did, too, some have high quality strands, some have standard ones....
A well done cable which is way better than most
Audioquest LeoPard
Silver wire (silver can carry 6% more information than copper and 16% more than gold), Teflon tubes, high quality plugs,72V isolation
1 Disadvantage: Too cheap

Syntax, where did you get this from? Its nonsense.

"Silver wire (silver can carry 6% more information than copper and 16% more than gold)"

Aside from all the variables, what kind of instrument was used to measure transfer of information?

david

Educate yourself

03-12-15: Syntax
Silver wire (silver can carry 6% more information than copper and 16% more than gold)

03-12-15: Dkarmeli
Syntax, where did you get this from? Its nonsense.

03-12-15: Syntax
Educate yourself

David (Dkarmeli), Syntax has made that statement on numerous occasions in the past, asserting that it is according to the AES (Audio Engineering Society). I have disputed the statement, and in the past asked for a link to the alleged AES source, which has not as yet been provided. I agree that it is nonsense, among many other reasons because it does not define "information," "information transfer," "information loss," "information carrying ability," or any other such term that he has used, and also because it does not take into account that the information loss of a cable, whatever it may mean, will be dependent on length (and most likely directly proportional to length, as for a given cable design nearly all cable parameters and cable effects are directly proportional to length). And as you alluded to the effects of the cable will also be dependent on numerous other variables, in the design of what it is connecting as well as the design of the cable itself.

03-12-15: Franklapdog
Jmcgrogan2
Your comment is so true but somewhere in my past travels,I heard that solid core silver with low capacitance makes for a better phono cable because of the very low signal transfer.Is this not correct?

No, it is a gross oversimplification at best, probably deriving from the fact that silver has SLIGHTLY (about 6 to 8%) lower resistance than copper, everything else being equal. However, simply making a copper conductor one gauge size larger than a silver conductor will compensate for that difference in resistance about three times over, and making the copper conductor 8% shorter than the silver conductor will also compensate for that difference. And in nearly all cases the resistance of a phono cable won't matter anyway, because aside from a few unusual circumstances it will be a miniscule fraction of the load impedance. Which in turn means that essentially all of the signal voltage will appear across the load impedance, rather than being dropped in the cable resistance, and essentially all of the signal energy will be absorbed by the load impedance, rather than by the cable. Which is not to say, of course, that the cable won't affect the signal in ways that are unrelated to resistance.

IMO, John's (Jmcgrogan2's) comment, which I know to be based on a great deal of relevant experience, is the bottom line.

Regards,
-- Al