[zanash]

thank you ....yes still relevant today

 

[AlanU]

Sonically I'd prefer using Ohno copper. Audio Sensibility is one of my favourite companies that offers excellent quality product at reasonable prices.
 
In many cases I find silver to provide a totally different sound to copper. 
 
If you have an overly warm system I'd consider silver. However if your sonically happy with your system high quality copper should provide excellent detail and retain a neutral to warm sound signature.

 

[comfortPlox]

Is occ silver plated copper any different?

 

[AlanU]

  Is occ silver plated copper any different?

 
trust your ears. 
 
I've found on Headfi that there's a strong rift between believer and non believers in "tweak" cabling.
 
My wife cares less of my audio hobby. However she can tell from one sound signature to another while I swap cabling. She will describe as "more clarity", "warmer", "sharp", or even "this sounds the best". This is someone who just simply closes her eyes and describes what she hears. She can also say "you didn't change anything" when I try to trick her. I guess this may indicate the resolution of my 2 channel speakers.  She is not one bit interested in audio gear yet her ears can audibly tell the difference. 
 
What is interesting is that many folks (headfi and audiofile 2 channel) has it's non believers. Many can still hear differences in major component swaps but disregards the SQ change of cabling. I can certainly hear a difference easily in blind tests. Going from my Aural symphonics cappaccino power cord to a diy furutch 3tS20 cable with rhodium ac plugs it's a massive difference in the "meat" or lack of "meat" in the music. My wife will say "what did you do???????" as she listens  because her ears can easily hear the difference and she's not a self proclaimed audiofile.
 
If you have an overly warm setup or if you own tube gear with heavy overly dark/ warm sound I'd suggest "silver plated copper". Otherwise I'd go copper and if possible Ohno japanese copper.  
 
Just remember that collectively you'll hear differences. An analogy is 1 dac can sound slightly different between 2 solid state amplifiers. Depending on your power grid if you add an power AC generator/passive power conditioning, isolation transformer you can very likely hear a big difference in SQ. We are listening to "converted electricity from the wall outlet" so if its at a component level (oil caps vs traditional) this makes a difference. If its just transferring electricity or goes through a transducer it will all have some form of SQ change. 

 

[Speedskater]

Alan, you might be surprised at how good some wives are at picking up unspoken clues.  The results may be different when following a correct blind test protocol with someone else doing the cable swapping.

 

[AlanU]

  Alan, you might be surprised at how good some wives are at picking up unspoken clues.  The results may be different when following a correct blind test protocol with someone else doing the cable swapping.

Yes...possibly true. 
 
However when she can pickup the "no difference in SQ" when I physically remove cables and re insert the same exact ones behind the rack (she cannot see what has been done behind the rack) . This must indicate something. Or possibly she is taking guesses very well. 
 
This also depends on the resolution of the gear. If I do cable swaps with my 15 yrs old entry level Energy tower speakers this wouldn't demonstrate much of a difference compared to my Totem Earth towers. I find the difference is more pronounced when I listen to my 2 channel vs my headphones with Burson Virtuoso. 
 
If you've ever tested a grant fidelity PC 1.5 you'll find the power cord to have an extreme crystalline sound and very pronounced.
 
I wont justify spending money on cabling.  To my ears tweaing is fun an  I have found this hobbyto be very enjoyable.....

 

[Steve Eddy]

Alan, you might be surprised at how good some wives are at picking up unspoken clues.  The results may be different when following a correct blind test protocol with someone else doing the cable swapping.

The disinterested wife/girlfriend story is so old it has whiskers.

se

 

[Steve Eddy]

trust your ears. 

What about the brain they're connected to?

se

 

[comfortPlox]

I didn't mean to start an argument. I'm just curious what difference silver plated copper has over a silver or copper cable.
 
* Please only answer if you believe in cable sound difference. 

 

[AlanU]

  I didn't mean to start an argument. I'm just curious what difference silver plated copper has over a silver or copper cable.
 
* Please only answer if you believe in cable sound difference. 

I urge you to try it for fun and exploration.
 
I am not here to convince you. Bottom line is if you hear a difference ..... that's what counts.
 
I am not here to judge anyone that is willing to try. Nothing venture, nothing gained. If it costs you some money for exploring it's only money!!
 
The folks that have extremely high end gear using Bestbuy "Energy/Monster" cables and do not seriously consider Power conditioning will be just as happy as a person that "tunes/tweaks" with modest/high end gear. At the end of the day it's your enjoyment of this audio hobby and most importantly the music.
 
If your system has enough resolution to take advantage of better cabling...... have fun tweaking  
 
It's absolutely amazing that there are so many participants in this forum that feel compelled to dictate how wrong people are in "enjoying a hobby". The internet seems to be either a productive means of exchanging information or some use it as a means of displaying their true colours.  I have just as much fun exploding a $4000 tranny at the race track and buy cabling for my 2 channel and headphone rig. My enjoyment needs no justification......
 
Comfortplox, feel free to PM me anytime for  productive conversation regarding cabling. 

 

[Steve Eddy]

It's absolutely amazing that there are so many participants in this forum that feel compelled to dictate how wrong people are in "enjoying a hobby". The internet seems to be either a productive means of exchanging information or some use it as a means of displaying their true colours.  I have just as much fun exploding a $4000 tranny at the race track and buy cabling for my 2 channel and headphone rig. My enjoyment needs no justification......

Depends on what you're after.

If you're just after enjoyment for its own sake, go with whatever you like.

But if you're after understanding what's actually going on, that's a whole other ballgame.

It's hard to tell at times. Some (if not most) people seem to be genuinely interested in what's actually going on.

Basically there are three types.

There are objectivists, who seek to know what's really going on.

There are subjectivists, who only seek the most enjoyable subjective experience and don't concern themselves with what's really going on.

And then there are those I call "pseudo objectivists" who take a "faith-based" approach and believe that their subjective experiences are an unerring reflection of the objective reality and think that true objectivists are just a bunch of idiots, or "apostates" if you will.

From his last post, it appears that comfortPlox wishes to join this latter group so I'll say no more.

se

 

[comfortPlox]

^ I think you misunderstood the question. People who agree with the difference say copper adds warmth and bass, silver adds some brightness. The question is what "difference" does silver plated copper make. How does it behave? Does it behave like copper or silver or differently than both? What is the general consensus?
 
Skeptics would say no difference at all. Well I'm not asking skeptics, which is why I left a note with an asterisk.
 
Now you could say try it for yourself, but I don't want to buy every single type of cable out there at the moment. Forums are for people to learn. 

 

[AlanU]

Steve,
 
I am objective with my school background in Electronics ( Diploma in electronics ). My ears are subjective because we all have opinions about audio gear/equipment.
 
Sonically rolling vacuum tube is the same category as "tweaking". Be it the configuration internally, inductance, capacitance, resistance. Every factor adds variables. 
 
If you build speaker wires from CAT5 cable or run of coarse or fine copper strands with similar AWG they are all conductors of electricity. Will it sound the same? CAT 5 has high inductance a low capacitance. This is where some will say they should sound identical because its "just wires". True - YES. In reality every wire will be a "good" or "better" impedance match between components. This is where you can have different frequency roll off due to wires. 
 
No harm in exploration because it's a person's choice in how they spend their money. I'm the sort that will not judge in a person's belief. Nor will fall into the shadow's of the internet to self gratify with elitism. As a newbie to this forum I find fantastic knowledge base along with non supportive individuals (audiofiles/headfi) deliberately patronizing someone else's joys of exploration of a hobby......  perhaps not much of  a supportive team player in an enthusiastic audio community.
 
Buying used cabling with dissatisfaction will not cost much. You can always resell to someone else with different gear on the same buy/sell.
 
Again....Comfortplox feel free to pm...let your ears be the judge.

 

[Steve Eddy]

Skeptics would say no difference at all. Well I'm not asking skeptics, which is why I left a note with an asterisk.

Now you could say try it for yourself, but I don't want to buy every single type of cable out there at the moment. Forums are for people to learn. 

Learn what exactly? By saying you want to hear nothing from skeptics, it seems you mean you have no interest in knowing what's actually going on.

se

 

[Steve Eddy]

I am objective with my school background in Electronics ( Diploma in electronics ). My ears are subjective because we all have opinions about audio gear/equipment.

Yes. But it's that subjectivity, at least on its own, that won't lead one to any meaningful understanding regarding the objective nature of things. Which is why I say if you want to be subjective, then be subjective and don't try and use that to explain things on the objective side of the street.

Sonically rolling vacuum tube is the same category as "tweaking". Be it the configuration internally, inductance, capacitance, resistance. Every factor adds variables.

Sure. But those variables aren't always meaningful with regard to what we can actually hear. Just because some variable changes by some small amount doesn't mean it will actually be audible to human beings.

If you build speaker wires from CAT5 cable or run of coarse or fine copper strands with similar AWG they are all conductors of electricity. Will it sound the same? CAT 5 has high inductance a low capacitance. This is where some will say they should sound identical because its "just wires". True - YES. In reality every wire will be a "good" or "better" impedance match between components. This is where you can have different frequency roll off due to wires.

Sure. But this is stuff that's been well known for over a century. No one has ever said you can't design a speaker cable or interconnect so incompetently that it can't make an audible difference. Only that it's trivially easy to design one that doesn't without resorting to any exotic materials.

No harm in exploration because it's a person's choice in how they spend their money. I'm the sort that will not judge in a person's belief. Nor will fall into the shadow's of the internet to self gratify with elitism.

Again, it all depends on what one is looking for. If someone is actually trying to understand what's actually going on, it's not doing them any favors to tell them that silver is audibly different from copper.

As a newbie to this forum I find fantastic knowledge base along with non supportive individuals (audiofiles/headfi) deliberately patronizing someone else's joys of exploration of a hobby......  perhaps not much of  a supportive team player in an enthusiastic audio community.

Yet again, it depends on what that person is looking for. In comfortPlox's case, he's made it clear that he has no desire in understanding what's actually going on. So he's all yours. I have nothing to offer him.

se