What makes a better phono cable ?

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

"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?"

Not necessarily. Ultimately, I believe Jmcgrogan2 is correct. You have to take everything on a case by case basis. The solid core silver was my recommendation based on my own personal experience. While I think there's a pretty good chance a silver AQ cable would make you happy, there's no guarantee. That same cable, in other applications in my system, doesn't always sound as good as the copper version of the same cable.

The safest way to do this would be to get a good deal on a used pair. That shouldn't be too difficult because its no longer in production. If you don't like it, you can probably sell it for very close to what you pay for it, so the risk is low. Also, up to this point, I've been able to find one spot in any given system I put together, where the silver cable sounds good. Again, that's no guarantee, but something to just keep in mind.

Al, (Almarg), I recognize bs that's why I called him (Syntax) on it and of
course he doesn't have a reply. I know about measuring impedance,
conductivity, resistance, etc. but never heard of a way to measure transfer
of information in this way specially when it comes down to our topic, the
quality of the audio signal. I was just curious why would anyone make such
an irrelevant statement specially if as you pointed out he's been called on it
before.
david

03-12-15: Almarg
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

Thank you kindly Al. I always value your comments. Though many might say too much experience, and I could not argue.
No simple Chocolate or Vanilla choice here. Do you know how hard it is to pick a favorite flavor when you've tried 48 different flavors?? Sometimes less is more. ;^)

Cheers,
John

Well, the question was, "What makes a better phono cable" and not "what is my flavor of the month". When everything is equal (high quality RCA plugs on BOTH sides - Preamp-, high quality solder and so on, then silver can carry more information than any other material on this planet. That's the way it is. What a listener likes or not is a total different chapter :-)