Silver-plated or single metal IC's?

I have owned HT Magic cables and they are some of the best non-networked cables made bar none. Pure silver is not musical, nor are plated formulations. Pure copper is musical..pure silver is for the hard of hearing. If you do not frequent live concert halls, then your opinion should be suspect.

Leica man, what cables and what system? Music?

Copper good..silver bad. Gold connections good...silver bad. Try before you buy at The Cable Co....ask for Robert Stein, mention Dave Borda. Over time, copper and Gold will sound like music..if you know what that is like...some people don't!!

Audiofeil, I must disagree with you...I have purchased and demo'd many fine silver cables. They simply have a cooler touch and not as warm a presentation generally speaking. Live music is so vivid and bold and warm and rich and full of dynamic life without any sense of edge or stridency...I truly beleive most people go by what they fantasize real music sounds like and not out of experience sitting in front of instruments being played live in a fine hall!

Most of what any of us say is baloney at the end of the day. You must try before you buy...and try alot for an extended period of time..as in day or weeks if possible. One last comment on silver cables however...ever been to Boston Symphony Hall? The sound is rich, warm, textured and sparkling like fine china (not broken dollar store glass). The live sound envelopes you with layers of auditory colors and tones..bass huge and deep, mids gloriously robust and full with power...smoothness is an understatement. Silver cables or flat line cables do not sound like music...closer to nails on a chalk board perhaps!

Art, halls may vary but live music is full, smooth, crazy dynamic, distortionless, full of bloom and tonal shadings and alive at any volume level. It is also rather rich and subdued on top..probably because it is ripe with texture and lacking in overemphasis as well as distrortions. Bass is always a revelation...so deep and full and seemingly out of control at times! Can't get it at home but one should have a goal. What it is that people expect they should hear is often perplexing...in the hall it is an enveloping sense of sound as a living thing...a living organic presence that you feel but are never offended by..it's just effortless yet powerfull. You also hear coughs and some shuffling...you do not hear the fingering of every musician nor the breath of everyone playing a woodwind. At least if you do hear non musical information it should not stand out in bold relief...it should not distract from the performance.

Well, we will just have to agree to disagree then Leica man. As for me, I have never heard an acoustic instrument(s) that have sounded brisk or cool...even a high school band playing full tilt 20 paces away sounds wonderfull...deafening maybe, but not harsh or cold. I choose not to inflict an analytical perspective on any of my music. Over the years my experience has shown that it is possible to put together a system that is not flawed by the inherent design errors found in most audio equipment. In fact, for awhile I bought into the notion that the CD was a medium that was seriously compromised...not so! The problems were with the companies designing for an engineering aesthetic and not for musicality. The digital playback gear is undergoing a rennaisance currently and some companies offer state of the art products without accentuating or in many cases corrupting the reproduction chain in the name of accuracy. Accuracy should allow the medium of choice to convey the most natural reproduction possible from a performance. As I have sought out these companies who design by ear as much as by principled engineering, my enjoyment of my vast collection of redbook CD's has increased tremendously. In fact, I have many redbook CD's that would destroy most audiophiles bias toward the need for new formats. Even in my current simplified system I have a hugely layered textured harmonicaly complete and dynamic window on almost anything I put on. It sounds every bit as clear and complex as live music while retaining the sense of ease and lack of harmonic distortion that causes many systems to impart an edge or stridency that is not actually on the recordings. I may go deaf standing in front of a horn section or a drum kit (which I don't recommend),but I would not do so from exposure to the sonic elements.

Agreed!!