Copper vs. Silver interconnects

i have good luck with the audience au24...it is a very neutral cable

another good cable is the wireworld super eclipse 5 ( silver plated copper). i have found this to be a good match with audio physic speakers.

It's preference. I have listen to silver cables and loved them because they bring out the high end particularly cymbals like Bob mentioned. However a good copper cable can do the same. I have found that the mixed strand cables seem to sound the best. I don't know your age and don't want to sound fatherly but years ago for a cable to be considered decent it had to have some silver. Then prices went through the roof and everyone started using copper to keep the prices reasonable. Today most manufactors use silver, gold, or a mix of copper / silver in thier high end cables. You may want to experiment with some hybrid cables like Siltech which uses silver & gold. They have a very natural sound compared to straight copper or silver. Something also to think abou is placement in your system. If you have bright interconnects, you can tone them down by your selection of speaker cables. I use bright interconnects(silver/gold) with copper speaker cables which are fairly large. I am working up to Kimbers 3035's which uses silver on the positive and copper on the negative. There next best speaker cable is all silver.What does that tell you? In any event the beauty of this hobby is that what ever sounds good to you make's it right for you.
Enjoy the music Woodman.

Ptmconsulting, are you a drummer as well? I prefer tonal accuracy in the sound of the drums (again, silver has worked best so far in my systems), and the sense that the music is coming to me as opposed to me having to suss it out, for lack of a better term. I tried a pair of Analysis Plus Solo Crystals the other day, and they just couldn't muster the same clarity and attack in the drum sound as the silver Verastarr's do on Robbie Robertson's first solo album. Manu Katche--what a killer drummer!

And Walkelin,
Happy for you to sound fatherly, as it's got to take a village to raise an audiophile. And I can always benefit from parental wisdom.

Thank you all, indeed. It's been most educational.
Howard

Howard, I've tried a number of copper and silver cables (including Kimber Select 1030, RS Audio MSE, Acoustic Zen Silver Reference), and I've come to the conclusion that I prefer copper...and especially the Au24. It's all personal preference, but the Au24s are sure worth buying used and trying.

I'm also (was also) a drummer. Silver has sounded like too much of a good thing to me. Too much treble detail, if that's possible. But again, it comes down to what you like (conveniently ignoring the quest for perfect accuracy as is being disccussed in other threads).

BTW, my system is all tubes right now...tube amp, tube preamp and tubed CD player.

Not a drummer - a piano player and multi keyboardist in my college days. Lots of time in a room with a live drumset though, and there was one song we played where everyone switched instruments. I got to play the drums then.

I took tenor sax lessons about a year ago (always wanted to do that) and am now much more critical of horns too. Yes, it is true that only horn loudspeakers (i.e. Klipsh and such) can adequately do justice to brassy horns.

What doies this mean to me - that a REAL sounding system has great micro and macro dynamics. However, you can achieve a reasonable sense of tonal accuracy in a system that doesn't have unlimited dynamics too. This often means a lot of experimentation and different materials, as you suggested.

I use Jon Risch's Belden 89259/89248 twisted pair most everywhere, but on my DAC I added an extra 30guage strand of silver to each leg. Pure silver lost that midrange beauty that I like. The combo works best for me ... but only in that location - it's not as good as the pure copper anywhere else in my system. Go figure.

Enjoy,
Bob