Silver Interconnects

[Hypnotist]

Any one used and removed or kept silver Interconnect RCA's in their system ?

Just trying out some on mine, wife is in so have to wait to see what it sounds like, thats without hearing "Do you have to have it so loud"

[Mike Reed]

I bought a pair of Artisan Audio RCA 1 metre I/Cs a year ago, and liked them. I used them from CDP to pre. and pre. to mono amps (all valved). I had a bake-off, pitting my Chord Indigo v the Artisan with CDP to pre., and half (3) of the participants preferrred the openness of the silver and 3 preferred the 'musicality'; of the Indigo.

There y'go ! There IS a difference in presentation, but I think that results are subject to taste and synergy with kit. The silver was slightly harder-hitting; more dynamic, even, but did lack the 'wholeness' of the Chord.

[anthonyTD]

Depends whether your talking about pure silver cables or silver plated.
Pure silver tends to be very much like pure copper, although more refind sounding, silver plated can sound bright, and dynamic at first, but can get tiresome rather quickly.
My opinion [for what its worth] stick to one metal, either can be very good, depending on the configuration of the rest of the cable.
Plugs can make a very marked diffrence when compared on the same cable too!

[Mike Reed]

Depends whether you're talking about pure silver cables or silver plated.
Pure silver tends to be very much like pure copper, although more refined sounding; silver plated can sound bright and dynamic at first, but can get tiresome rather quickly.

My opinion [for what it's worth]is to stick to one metal; either can be very good, depending on the configuration of the rest of the cable.
Plugs can make a very marked difference when compared on the same cable too!

Yes, I've heard/read this in the past.

My I/Cs are Ultimate Silver Dream (pure silver) with WBT Ag plugs at each end.

SONDEKKER, I didn't know there was a model above mine; does it have more than 4 cores, or in which way is it supposedly better? B.t.w., the price of the Chord Indigo original wasn't much above the the Artisans at r.r.prices,. Considering that one is a large company with many levels of agency and t'other is a small direct sales cottage industry, I'd say the price difference yo mention isn't much at all. I also used my Chord Signatures as a comparison, but the Indigo is more refined and proved to be a better comparison, but not by much. The Chord Sig. would have been lower than the current Artisan price, I'd think.

[Sondekker]

Yes, I've heard/read this in the past.

My I/Cs are Ultimate Silver Dream (pure silver) with WBT Ag plugs at each end.

SONDEKKER, I didn't know there was a model above mine; does it have more than 4 cores, or in which way is it supposedly better? B.t.w., the price of the Chord Indigo original wasn't much above the the Artisans at r.r.prices,. Considering that one is a large company with many levels of agency and t'other is a small direct sales cottage industry, I'd say the price difference yo mention isn't much at all. I also used my Chord Signatures as a comparison, but the Indigo is more refined and proved to be a better comparison, but not by much. The Chord Sig. would have been lower than the current Artisan price, I'd think.

Ah! I see. The addition of the WBT plugs does make a significant difference to the cost of the Artisans. Artisan do offer an even higher priced pure silver interconnect called 'The Nth Degree' which uses eight conductors and numerous other improvements/refinements including Furutech's super expensive 'CF' RCA or XLR connectors. At around £750 for a 1 metre pair they were beyond me when I decided to upgrade. Furthermore, while Artisan say they are the best cables they are able to produce and which they believe will stand comparison against any others, I couldn't find any independent reviews when I was looking to upgrade.

[Mike Reed]

Seems they've doubled up on the silver cores, then, John. Can't think I'd go there either at that price ! I have a mix of 2 x Chords, the Artisan and the T.Q. Black Diamond, using, presumably, their own mix of metals, plus a couple of also-ran I/Cs. Again these T.Q. cables have WBT plugs on. They're all good with my system,; just slightly different in my almost all valve kit.

[Sondekker]

I bought a pair of Artisan Audio RCA 1 metre I/Cs a year ago, and liked them. I used them from CDP to pre. and pre. to mono amps (all valved). I had a bake-off, pitting my Chord Indigo v the Artisan with CDP to pre., and half (3) of the participants preferrred the openness of the silver and 3 preferred the 'musicality'; of the Indigo.

There y'go ! There IS a difference in presentation, but I think that results are subject to taste and synergy with kit. The silver was slightly harder-hitting; more dynamic, even, but did lack the 'wholeness' of the Chord.

Interesting results bearing in mind the significant price difference between those cables. Were you using the basic Silver Dream cable or the Ultimate Silver Dream cable?

Having read a bit about Artisan Silver cables and read a number of positive reviews, I purchased a set of Ultimate Silver Dream XLR cables for use between my DAC/preamp and power amp and was rather impressed with them. In my system they just sounded natural and fairly well balanced and I particularly liked their reproduction of vocals. In view of the obvious uplift in performance compared with the basic cables I was using previously I decided after about 4 months to take the plunge and I went even higher end.

To my surprise the Artisans have been offered for sale on here and elsewhere but didn't generate any positive interest..

[Bigman80]

I've made loads of trial cables and in terms of silver, the more 9's and the bigger the gauge, the better they sound IMO. Best pair I made were 1.3mm conductor, 99.999% purity (£26pm x 4m ) AECO Silver RCA plugs and 4% Silver Solder.

At the time, I much preferred the sound of high purity Copper. I may have to revisit that now as the system has changed massively.

[Hibster_2000]

I've made loads of trial cables and in terms of silver, the more 9's and the bigger the gauge, the better they sound IMO. Best pair I made were 1.3mm conductor, 99.999% purity (£26pm x 4m ) AECO Silver RCA plugs and 4% Silver Solder.

At the time, I much preferred the sound of high purity Copper. I may have to revisit that now as the system has changed massively.

Did you try a higher percentage content silver solder, rather than just 4%?
I was wondering what the effect of pure silver cable, pure silver plug and a little bit of silver for the connection was in compared to a different material plug was, for example.

[Bigman80]

Did you try a higher percentage content silver solder, rather than just 4%?
I was wondering what the effect of pure silver cable, pure silver plug and a little bit of silver for the connection was in compared to a different material plug was, for example.

I did use 9% silver on some WBT plugs for an order. Unfortunately I don't have subjective results as I haven't made any pairs like them again.

The issue with silver solder, especially at 9%, is how much heat you have to use to get a proper, nice connection. Using it with KLE, MS Audios or AECOs will cause a novice to melt the plastic mould of the RCA.

WITH WBT it's not an issue as they are metal construction, however I would never recommend WBT over KLE either.

4% silver solder is on everything I make. I just think it's better sonically than tin/lead stuff. Might be nonsense but that's life lol

In regard to using different metals, well, everything has an effect. I use pure copper cable, silver plated copper RCAs and silver solder. I felt that all silver was too lean. I felt that's silver plated cables were etched and shrill at times, I found that copper cables with silver RCAs were probably ad good, if not a little clearer in the HF than silver-plated copper plugs were.

I've used bare copper plugs, which sounded like old valve amps, I've used gold plated plugs which sounded bereft or 'air' or space.

The right combo can only be found by the experimenter