The Sound Signature Of Silver

silver has a lovely clear analytical sound signature, not sure what people prefer the most, i think copper is probably the most popular, followed by copper and silver cables but its all subjective, some people even claim there is no difference in sound between cables...

anyway yeah, regarding the durability, just dont bend it too much or anything as it will have a tendency to snap far more readily than the copper cables, but if treated right that should never even be a problem.

My interconnects on my speaker based system are Kimbers; I love the PBJ and the Silver Streak; basically the same cables, braided, eight wires in every cable, teflon isolation. But the SS has a silver cable for the signal and though they share the common Kimber traits I love (big soundstage, detailed, 'natural') the copper cable has some midbass warmth and a rolledoff yet grainy treble; very enjoyable (especially for the price; a DIY PBJ can be had from about €20,- a set, depending on the plugs, even cheaper then the overhyped but to my ears not very good Blue Jeans).
In contrast the SS has smooth yet extended treble and well dampened deep bass, making it a more tonally correct sounding cable; since the only difference seems to be the material it must be the silver that is responsible for the different SQ. I prefer the SS, but clould happily live with the PBJ.
BTW, I never heart a silver plated cable I liked, be it iIC or LS-cables. They sound bright in CD-based systems to my ears.

Yum... PBJ. Now I'm hungry.

Sorry, nothing to add, carry on

According to Ray Kimber PBJ actually meant peanutbutter jam; the cables are one of kimbers first, befor the company got big; appearantly at first they came in a sandwichbag to keep the price down.

Well, I just recieved my Signal Cable Silver Resolution interconnects today, so I'll be able to go all silver from my source, except the headphone cables (although my Denons have silver plate copper wiring). Frank recommends 50 hours of burn in on them, but I'll be able to post some impressions soon.

Hi,
i have just receipted my jumbo cryo silver cables (alo mini to mini and dock ) and i' m listening it now to compare it with my Jumbo cables (alo).
i m listen it with imod source, pvcaps.
I'm testing it with an Hornet and with the predator.
headphone is GS1000.
I'll give you my first impressions, but first thing :
sound completely different than copper cables.

so i have more time to give you my first impressions.

it's the first time i'm listen silver cables.
So i compare jumbo x cryo sylver cable with jumbo copper cables :

Silver :
more deeper bass,detail, soundstage, dynamique, more open aera (exepted vocals)

Copper.
just more medium and a larger place for vocals.


So i have make some test with 2 amps(Hornet and predator), and 2 sources imod and regular ipod 4G.

conclusions :
I indicate my prefer set up :
Imod + Copper cable+ predator.
Predator doesn't need silver cables to have deeper bass, detail ect..

Imod+silver cables+Hornet
Hornet have a great synergie with silver cables wich give it the oportunitie to comp with predator.

regular Ipod+sivlver cables + hornet or predator.
silver cables give to the ipod a way to comp with an Imod.

My best result is with my nano 2G, silver cable and Hornet.

Hope it's useful, comments are welcome.

Eric.

Stuff like this doesn't make any sense to me.

I hate the word "soundstage" People use it constantly and especially it's something that's always changed by products that have no quantifiable way of measuring said change.

I bet if I asked ten "audiophiles" what they defined "soundstage" as, I'd get ten different answers.

More "medium" and "place for vocals"? Mid-range frequencies are where most vocals are found. Silver boosts the low frequencies and the highs? If this were truly tangible, why can't I measure it? Especially if copper so clearly boosts the mids while silver so clearly boosts everything else?

Why do people pay so much for things that clearly seem to have the same effect that some simple EQ'ing would have? You want your bass tones more apparent? Raise them. You want to hear the mids a bit brighter? Pump them up a little. How the hell does a $2,000 piece of metal achieve this, let alone how does it achieve it in a way that justifies $2,000?

Until you haven't make a comparaison listening session bw Predator, Hornet and different connexion, everythings 'll have never sense for you.
"Stuff like this"
is just to give some impression about different perception of the sound with different cables (with same source and amp ).
an aqualizer, just equalize the signal imput.
If there is lake of medium, bass or treeble...
good luck to equalize something.

Yes, this is a total ridiculous aspect of some audiophiles. To simply brighten their signal, people with too much money to burn will buy a $300 silver cable to give them another notch of treble. It's of course this is because they insisted on going the "purist" route and bought a preamp without tone controls. Then, of course, they have to go through ten cd players, a dozen amps and fifteen speaker trying to make the rig sound right. That ten thousand dollar Platinum encrusted silver-kryptonite cable (cryrogenically treated) is just another attempt to forget they should have bought something with the words "Bass" "Treble" "Balance" written on the front. I mean, what are these people expecting to hear? Case in point, tonight I was listening to a bunch of cds I'd never heard before at the newspaper where I work - discarded music that never made our critic's list. I was listening through a portable cd player and my Senn Px100 (29 bucks). On a range of cds, I could hear: "nice, lightly mic'd recording, natural sound" "over multitracked recording - crap" "dry recording overprocessed in a computer program" I mean, I didn't need a ten thousand dollars system to hear the nuances of these recordings. I've been around the block as an audiophile, done my own recordings and I know the various approaches to recorded music. I could hear all those things with a cd portable and a thirty dollar headphone because I know recordings. A guy who's just figgiting around would probably be going nuts because his new Muse album didn't sound natural! Honestly, I say find something that sounds just fine and forget about it. Your wallet and your brain will thank you. But anal rententiveness is a big part of audiophila - so I guess enjoy that too.

This is why I DIY my own cables. Silver. Or Copper. Or Silver Plated copper. Or whatever combo. That's basically it. I don't get why is there a premium for whatever cryo, blablabla yadayadayada.

And back to the main topic.. The thing about silver is... There shouldn't be a sound signature at all. If there is, then it shouldn't be labeled as silver. REAL silver that is.

Well, I can't hear much different about my new silver cable, other than a tad more low level detail and a tiny bit cleaner highs. That's enough for me, honestly. Does it justify spending $139 for a nice cable? I suppose. Does it make me want to spend 10X more to get the same effect? Absolutely not. I think the differences in cabling are so minute that they don't justify the exorbitant costs that some manufacturers ask, and it certainly doesn't merit the "your everything will be a million times better!" claims they make.

Beyond the very dubious claim that silver does ANYTHING to the sound, whatever difference it would make would be so small that it would be inaudible. You'd need INCREDIBLY specialized equipment just to find the difference at all and that equipment would have nothing to do with sonic differences.

I think the two driving factors in why people believe they hear differences are:

1) They spent the money on it, they WANT to hear the difference.

2) They want to think they have some high level of "taste" or "ability" to hear minute subtleties - this usually also points right back at reason 1.

X2