The two metals do sound different too my ears. Real Silver has more of a silkiness to the top end. So far that's the biggest difference I notice.
Speaker Wire material
Could someone please explain this to me. I have heard that using speaker wires made out of different materials will have different sounds such as using silver would sound differnt than say using copper. I have a background in electronics and don't quite understand this. If both wires have the same load carrying capacity (silver being a better conductor the wire could be smaller diameter than the copper) what would cause the the sound to be differnt. When it comes down to the physics of it aren't you just pushing electrons along the wire?
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SLV thanks for the reply I would think that the oxidaton of the materials would be insignificant unless you had just corroded pieces of crap. I agree with you on the impedance however on the average length of the speaker cable I again would think that the impedence disparity between the two materials (agreeing that they both would be of good quality) would produce a difference that would be audible to the human ear. I would expect that it could be seen if connected to an oscilliscope, but could it be heard? |
ROW: You might be interested in the listening tests of cables that Stereo Review conducted in the early 80s. It can be downloaded from this page: http://bruce.coppola.name/audio/wisdom.html |
Bgrazman: I agree that the amount of oxide in the high purity metals used in quality cables is small, but does that mean that it is not affecting the sound? I don't know the answer. The understanding I have on copper vs silver came from a cable design Engineer that has worked with this stuff for years. Even he is not really sure, but they are his best thoughts on the subject at this time. Row: I found a link to another article on the website Pabelson mentioned that you may find interesting. It doesn't talk about copper vs silver, but it does discuss the audible effects of the electrical properties of cables. It's titled "Effects of Cable, Loudspeaker, and Amplifier Interactions". |
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