ZYX Universe silver vs copper

Doug, all ...

I realized that my post above was a bit nebulous.

My most extensive and controlled silver/copper experimentation involved the Airy-3. By experimenting with loading, I was able to close the gap between the two variants ... still preferring the copper by a small margin in the end.

Silver/Copper with the Universe was on different systems and not as well controlled. Likely, it's higher resolution expands on the differences. This would be consistent with yours and Cello's observations.

Sorry for the confusion ...

Cheers,
Thom @ Galibier

Jeffreybehr,

The ZYX UNIverse is a phono cartridge, not a cable. Check out the review beneath my signature for details.

FWIW I concur with Cello. In our system and to our ears the copper vs. silver differences were not subtle. If someone slipped a silver onto my tonearm without telling me we'd know in an instant, on virtually any LP. We prefer the lifelike energy of the copper but many people love the silver, so YMMV as always.

Could someone pls post a link to this cable? I can't find it thru Google.
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I concur with Doug, Divo and Thom and prefer the Copper to Silver.
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For me, the Copper has more life and better leading edge attacks without any sense of brightness or exaggerated detail. If I had not heard the Copper, I would be thrilled with the Silver.
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I had the benefit of hearing both the Copper and the Silver in my system on the same weekend with the same music and the difference was not that subtle and then again in another system on another occasion. It was an easy choice for the Copper.
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Rgds,
Larry
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Hello all,

I've heard things on high resolution systems that one can only get a hint at on other systems.

Even on my rig, the difference between copper and silver coiled ZYSXs is subtle but noticeable - with a preference for the copper, which is in general slightly more revealing than the silver. This is quite counterintuitive from the normal characterization of silver. IOW, what Doug said.

The differences (even on a high-rez system) are such that unless you worked hard to commit a few reference recordings to memory, I doubt you'd care about them once you owned either one.

Having said that, my preference is for copper on all but the nastiest sounding rigs ... the kind of rig that a Universe or Airy-2/Airy-3 owner is unlikely to own (a nasty sounding one).

Cheers,
Thom @ Galibier

I decided on the Silver. Thank you all.

I have found the exact opposite qualities with the Airy3.
I preferred the Cu in terms of naturalness.

Just wondering, would the same be true for the rest of the Zyx line in choosing between copper and silver?

Cousinbilly1,

Rcupka is correct, you've got it backwards. The copper UNIverse has more lifelike leading edge transients. More jump.

The silver rolls off leading edges almost like a Koetsu woodbody. It sounds more relaxed and smoothed.

I'm not familiar with your electronics, but on a Schroeder I'd expect the silver UNIverse would be noticeably on the warm side of neutral.

I have the UNI with copper coils and am very happy with it. I haven't tried the silver coils but it's my understanding the copper coils are more neutral while the silver coils add warmth ala Koetsu.