Copper, silver, or gold MC cartridge coils?


Copper coils seem to be the most popular.

Silver coils seem to have the general trait of warmer midrange and extended high frequencies, by those that prefer them.

Copper has lower mass than silver, and much less mass than gold. Better transients?

Silver has the best conductivity, followed by copper, then gold.  Gold has the best corrosion durability.

Can we draw any conclusions as to the type of sonic traits and preference of each type?

Any preferences and why your choice of type, or is there no big differences sonic wise?
don_c55
@rauliruegas  vdHul used platinum wire for the coils in a short lived series of the Colibri (discontinued as consistent high quality platinum wire apparently was no longer available).
 
As for Koetsu and Lyra, I always understood that they use(d) platinum for the magnets. Apparently these are also rare, as Lyra needs a donor cartridge with such magnet to build a new one. Then again, Koetsu seems to have no trouble sourcing platinum magnets for their gemstone models. In any case, this is quite a different application of the material, likely to yield different sonic benefits.

I may be wrong, but as far as I know there's never been a cartridge that used platinum for both the coils AND the magnets. Would be an interesting beast.....

I wonder why nobody plays around with the wiring of MM or MI cartridges. Higher voltage maybe wire has less effect?

They do actually, LC-OFC versus PC-OCC.
Grace and Audio-Technica made different versions.   

Dear @edgewear : Yes you are rigth because Lyra asked for the Parnassus sample to build the Olympos and yes too with the Koetsu that does not needs a donor cartridge.

Yes, different application sonic benefits.

R.
Dear @mijostyn : I think that the more expensive high output ( MM/MI ) cartridges are the ones coming from SoundSmith and PL never says he is using silver or gold wire in the coils but cooper.

No singler vintage HO MM/MI use silver wire in its coils. The rule is cooper as with LOMC ones too .

Some LOMC , maybe by marketing issue, use silver or gold wire but this is not " normal " and perhaps only a marketing hype to ask higher prices for it. Only the manufacturers can tell us the true behind their choosed coils wire types.
R.


I have a Koetsu Jade Platinum cartridge which sounds amazing.  I understand it is the wiring and not the magnet that is platinum.   It is utterly natural-sounding, clear and seductive - can transport you into places no other source has achieved for me.