Location: Goa, India
Posts: 143
I'm Denzil.
Location: London
Posts: 83
Played around with cables after getting sucked into WHF reviews and all the silver talk. There was clearly a difference that you could tell blind. I found silver very harsh, over the top in terms of transparency and unforgiving of poor recordings. Switching to copper and keeping runs of cable short let me just enjoy the music.
Got some cheap amazon 99.x copper on prime while waiting for my Van Damme and even that sounds better than the cheap 5* rated silver plated recommended stuff that IMO is junk.
Location: Co.Durham
Posts: 84
I'm Frank.
Well whatever is exposed to the air will react and tarnish - silver oxide. But the outer cable itself is going to be a barrier; the connection is likely to be nigh-on airtight, but over a period of time is likely to oxidize and discolour, requiring a periodic cleaning. But unless you can get silver speaker cables at a bargain price - they will cost a fortune, as has been indicated. No idea what you have as a system, but silver speaker cables would be not be a high priority for me. I would imagine the money could be better spent elsewhere on your system.
Location: Goa, India
Posts: 143
I'm Denzil.
Location: Goa, India
Posts: 143
I'm Denzil.
Location: Goa, India
Posts: 143
I'm Denzil.
Location: notts uk
Posts: 296
I'm Pete.
"Well whatever is exposed to the air will react and tarnish - silver oxide. But the outer cable itself is going to be a barrier; the connection is likely to be nigh-on airtight, but over a period of time is likely to oxidize and discolour, requiring a periodic cleaning. But unless you can get silver speaker cables at a bargain price - they will cost a fortune, as has been indicated. No idea what you have as a system, but silver speaker cables would be not be a high priority for me. I would imagine the money could be better spent elsewhere on your system. " reply by columbo
The main tarnish elements for silver are sulphides and nitrates from SO2 and nitrus oxides in the air ...very little silver oxide is formed ...
Interestingly silver salts are within a few percentage points as conductive as pure silver.
copper salts are semi conductive and some are diodic ...the very first diodes were made from copper salts. Copper will also tell you what the salts are as they are all differently colored...in my experience you almost never get copper oxide [which is black] its more likely to be red or greeny or bluey you can id them here ! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_copper_salts
Last edited by zanash; 06-06-2020 at 10:28.
Location: Melbourne
Posts: 166
I'm Alex.
I have always stuck to one type of metal as well, either pure copper or silver. Each time I tried silver-plated copper, it seems to be artificially bright or adds a "tizziness" to the sound which annoys me to no end. Sounds like a stylus with grit on it and needs to be cleaned....my analogy
ou might slip, you might slide, you might
Stumble and fall by the road side
But don't you ever let nobody drag your spirit down
Remember you're walking up to heaven
Don't let nobody turn you around
… Walk with the rich, walk with the poor
Learn from everyone, that's what life is for
And don't you let nobody drag your spirit down
Eric Bibb
Location: Melbourne
Posts: 166
I'm Alex.
Copper tarnished = copper oxide which I believe is non-conductive, wheres silver tarnished = silver oxide which remains conductive
I have DIY silver interconnects with a teflon dielectric sheath and I have not noticed any tarnishing at all despite them being several years old since I made them