Silver v Copper wire phono cable


Getting ready to order new tonearm, have option for either copper or silver continuous phono cable from cartridge to preamp.  without the  opportunity to compare personally, I would like to hear how others would chose....my system is shown on this site...thank you

J

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If the latest technology for Wire Production is to be considered, the OCC replacement Copper PC Triple Wire will be a Wire to consider.   

The Cat is Out of the Bag and there is a steady growing movement toward this Wire at a commercial and enthusiast user level.

As far as I know SAEC are the only company at present offering this wire used as an internal Wand Wire, and there is also the possibility this wire used is      PC Triple C / EX, which has a forged High Purity Silver Sheath on the Copper Core. The EX is the same wire I am working with, the goal is to separate the strands and produce a Insulated Internal  Wand Wire, the Sheathing Method for adding the Insulation, is being worked out between a few friends at present, using much cheaper strands of wire. The ease of the process, ensuring the Wire is not stressed and the Overall Wire Diameter as an end product are presenting there own challenges.

As for Burn In times for a Phonostage, a reverse riaa adaptor used in conjunction with a CDP will enable endless hours of Phonostage use, and save the Cartridge.

If a Valve Phon' is in use, do the same method, but swap out the chosen Valves for cheaper options to preserve the life of the preferred valves.                                      This is my preferred method and have put a few hundred hours on a New Phon' in quite short periods of time, having the music on low level and within hearing range will reveal noticeable changes to the SQ as the burn in progresses.     

  

 

 

**** Do not let the distortions of silver enter your system. ****

Acknowledging that the choice will be influenced at least to some degree by the aggregate of the spectral signatures of all the other “components” in an audio system, how does using silver, a metal that has higher conductivity and lower resistivity than copper necessarily mean that it will introduce more distortion than copper?

@frogman welcome to the forum of opinions, bias, varied taste, measurements/no measurements...play at your own risk!

Dear @frogman : The VDH that came or comes with today SME tonearms is not a standalone wire for sale.

 

That internal tonearm wire is way even more fragile than the AN one and I know by first hand experience when I " opened " the SME IC cable and I had to let it that way because I did not fixed again just can’t do it. I have not the rigth tools to do it that are like the ones of cartridge retippers.

 

In the other side I think that @bpoletti must be kidding about silver wire and if not then that could means that he has not the quality level room/system to be aware of the differences silver always made in a good system.

 

R.

Oh, Raul....  Once again your evaluation and interpretation fails.

Silver ADDS a 5khz to 8khz rise, even though slight, that creates a hardness / harshness to the signal.  It is pollution and distortion of the signal.  And I suggest that your system is seriously deficient as must be your hearing if you fail to detect such irritation.  Recall that it is possible in an A / B test to detect as little as 3mB difference is signals as demonstrated in blind tests.  

My room and electronics are reference grade.  It's a shame you only compare your system to better systems and don't realize what you're missing.

But there is the other possibility is that YOUR system is deficient or weak in the 5khz to 8khz because it was mis-voiced using a lack of quality components during design and manufacturing.  The distortion from silver would help artificially compensate for your lack of quality, but would not end up reproducing the signal as recorded.  The silver would only act as a fixed frequency equalizer.