Silver cables or copper?Any opinons.

11-04-14: Syntax
AES Standard rates copper as Standard for Signal transfer ability (=100%), Silver for example is 106, gold is around 90 and everything else is much worse. Silver can carry 6% more Information than anything else.
When the unit has very cheap RCA input plugs (brass with gold plating for example), they are in the area of 60, that means, they reduce any input signal by min. 40 % from what is possible.

Syntax, can you provide a link to that "AES Standard," which backs up those numbers and also defines exactly and clearly what is meant by "signal transfer" and "information carrying" ability?

The only thing in any of those numbers which to me makes any sense whatsoever is the 6% difference between silver and copper, which for a given gauge approximately corresponds to their difference in resistance per unit length (i.e., resistivity), and its reciprocal, conductance per unit length (i.e., conductivity).

All of the other numbers you cited appear to be either incorrect (i.e., the conductivity of gold is considerably less than 90% of the conductivity of silver and copper), or, frankly, misleading mumbo jumbo (i.e., cheap RCA plugs "reduce any input signal by min 40% from what is possible").

Also, regarding the 6% of so difference in resistivity and conductivity between silver and copper, a point to keep in mind is that that difference can be compensated for several times over by simply going one gauge size larger in copper. It can also be compensated for by simply making the copper cable 6% shorter than the silver cable. And in the case of line-level interconnects, a 6% difference in resistance will be utterly inconsequential anyway, as it will amount to a completely negligible fraction of the impedances of the components that are being connected. And the same goes for speaker cables under most although probably not all circumstances.

Therefore if in fact there is a general tendency for silver cables to have different sonic characteristics than copper cables, that 6% difference in resistance per unit length is almost certainly not the reason.

Regards,
-- Al

Try, for free, Paul's Clear Day silver cables and see if you like them. They sound pretty good in my system.

Personally I prefer silver, but there are some interesting alloys being used that perform extremely well

Here's a link to a PDF with IACS conductivity ratings
http://www.avoutlet.com/images/product/additional/f/iacs_of_metals_n_solder.pdf

Regards

Yeah, silver is more conductive, and when that seemingly small percentage gets amplified for the speakers, it's noticeable.

Personally I really like solid core wire instead of stranded wire. Audioquest and Morrow Audio both do great things with solid core conductors, but really, many companies have found good results with this design.

Runnin, did you read the last two paragraphs of my post, especially these two sentences:

Also, regarding the 6% or so difference in resistivity and conductivity between silver and copper, a point to keep in mind is that that difference can be compensated for several times over by simply going one gauge size larger in copper. It can also be compensated for by simply making the copper cable 6% shorter than the silver cable.

Regards,
-- Al