[twitch54]

Signal Cable is great, very good build quality and discrete black jackets.

Ditto, Frank is a very good guy to deal with

[Kane Williams]

With regards to Silver being more "revealing" than copper. A cable cannot reveal more than is in the original recording! Cables can only mask information, by not delivering all the information.

Surely the best cable is the one that reveals everything? A cable should alter the signal as little as possible. If a cable makes your system seem bright (for instance), then it is probably another part of your system that is booosting the top end or possibly lacking in the low end. If someone does not want to hear all the detail, why bother with "high end" cables/gear at all?

I have heard of record producers hearing stuff in tracks they made on a revealing Hi-Fi that they didn't hear when they made the music. This means that they have issues in their studio. They recorded and mixed things they could not hear. In this case, the Hi-Fi is revealing info that the producer didn't intend to be heard (even though they often like the extra info they are hearing), so you could say that an inferior Hi-Fi or cables that where not as "transparent" would of produced what the "producer intended" and therefore be better (for that one recording)?

Anyway, sorry to go off subject.

[Wayner]

In order of conductivity, silver is first, then copper, gold and then aluminum. The passage of electrons in wire can be altered by many things. It could be the material (increasing resistance to electron flow) or the design of the cable (mechanically inducing some kind of capacitance or induction) or mechanically allowing interference from some external offender, via poor shielding. This symptoms are a lesser degree with speaker cables (by a large margin), than interconnects which transmit microvolts or very small voltages, where mechanical construction and shielding play an important role (as well as dielectric).

Wayner

[Bemopti123]

In order of conductivitygold and then aluminum.

Wayner

Check the bottom of the gallery for some aluminum foil cables with materials from your kitchen and garage.

http://www.bd-design.nl/contents/en-us/d128.html

and this

[Wayner]

Why am I not suprised that someone would do something like this?

Wayner

[Brown]

Hey back in the day Alum foil was the rage. wrap those phono cables shield that transformer who knew. long live frugal methods.

[Wayner]

Or you could go out and buy some 16awg cord from Rat Shack for next to nothin'.

Hey, if guys want to make speaker cable out of Reynolds wrap, go for it. All that proved was that aluminum foil can conduct signal, so can steel coat hangers, electric fence wire and steel banding strap.

I'll be boring and go buy some more conventional wire.

Wayner 

[Kane Williams]

Thanks Wayner

So, can a cable be too revealing? To me that is an oxymoron.

The cables I bought from Ultimate Cables (C4 balanced XLR) uses a mixture of 2 silver strands and 2 copper strands weaved together (or something like that). I questioned the manufacturer about this method asking if the two different materials, which would have different properties (capacitance etc) would result in a sort of "double image" effect, blurring the sound a bit. They said, although I was technically right, that in real terms, the human ear would not detect any smearing, as any time difference was not within our perception.

They were not the exact words, but close enough.

Anyway, I tried the cables and liked them, although I do prefer my more expensive PS Audio (Transcendence and Reference) XLR's. They seem a little smoother, although the Ultimate Cables have a nice upfront edge to them. I have yet to compare them against some "standard" XLR mic cables I have.

[Wayner]

Kane,

I think we all want a superconductor for all applications, where LCR is almost zero. Cables do not have sound. They do influence the signal, by either adding to it by poor shielding, retarding it by resistance (and capacitance) or altering it (by the same bad guys). Because the upstream signal is influenced by other sources, it influences downstream components.

Like the guy that made the speaker cables out of aluminum foil (great science project) he forgot some other elements that are altering his precious signal like LCR. While there are plenty of ideas for making cables out of different materials and physical attributes, they all have pluses and minuses as far as disturbing the signal. We all want a length of cable or wire to have the same signal integrity coming out as when it came in. I'm sure no-one has accomplished that yet.

Wayner