Low end. Cheap. Generic. Otherwise bang for buck cable thread!

Stop ****ting on the wire. Where is the photo of yours for proof that it looks like a turd?

 

It wireS

 

any bang for buck 2 pin bluetooth IEM cable?

 

The whole gold cable thing is a recent phenomenon. To be honest unless your a boutique cable maker and actually incorporate real gold for sonic reasons. All these gold plated or actually colored is more like it SPC cables have more to do with asthetics than anything. I actually bought a 8 core gold supposedly gold plated SPC cable and it sounds and looks exactly like a silver coated copper cable I bought from the same vendor.

Long storry short. Don't go for the gold unless it matches your solaris .. There is no benefit besides color matching. lol.

 

I just assumed people knew they weren’t going to be gold plated.

I mean, KZ and TRN’s new 8-core wired for $7? Like you said, the color is just for looks.

 

I think if we focus more on actual core of what the cable is. It is more viable. NiceHCK and the other vendors have 4 to 5 different color variations of the same cable. Really at this price range we are talking about copper. How pure and if it has silver coating on it or not. Then I wonder if the silver coating on a lot of these cables are just paint. Lol. I bet it is.

 

Shipping cost is higher than cable price

Shipping:US $25.78 to France via EMS

 

Plus VAT tax on top?

Nothing like a $20 cable that costs $100 by the time you get it in your hands.

Now I know why the Boston Tea Party happened lol

 

Forget about it. There are no reviews.

 

Any millionaires here want to buy a bunch of silver plated Aliexpress cables and see if they're painted and not silver? Or, hire a scientist and see if they are real silver... if the color doesn't scratch off.

 

No need to hire a scientist, just do a google search.

 

I can do testing of 1 braided KZ cable. I have connections in the fine jewelry business, and can have it tested for the presence of silver.

I’m not going to buy and destroy a boatload of cables though, but I’m willing to test 1. If someone wants to donate a cable or 2 and send them to me (Cincinnati Ohio), I will have it tested.

 

Of those tests, the telltale one is the nitric acid test.

The magnet test is used to identify ferrous base metals, which we know our cables wouldn’t have.

The nitric acid test is all that’s needed. It’s the gold standard, and is what we use in the fine jewelry industry. Those other tests listed (ice, bleach, chicken blood, pixie dust) are ghetto and no one uses those.

I’ll do the nitric acid test this week and report the results.

It does not identify the purity of silver though, only that silver is present. There are specialized assays to determine the exact precious metal content, but that is overkill for the cable issue. Nitric acid will tell right away if the cable is plated with silver vs tin vs nickel (the 3 most common silver colored wire electro coatings).

I doubt it’s nickel though, as nickel plating makes wire more difficult to solder. Tin and silver platings are going to be the most common we see by far, as they actually make it easier to solder.

Tin is cheaper, and actually increases cable resistance so it is not desirable. However, it’s used because it ‘looks good’ and is cheap.

 

Three quick tests.

1.) cut it and stick it under a scope and look at the end to visually confirm plated vs solid
2.) cut a known length of cable and measure its density. Pure copper, pure silver, and hybrids will all yield different densities.
3.) stick a small piece under a torch and look for green flame color to identify presence of copper.

 

I thought we were strictly talking about the “silver plated” copper cables. A $5-$20 isn’t going to be pure silver.