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A while back I tried two different PC's on my power amp. One was all copper, the other was silver-plated copper. They both had the same Hubbell plugs and Marinco IEC's. The silver plated wire sounded clearer and more detailed, but had less low end "warmth". Could this have been due to an interaction between the brass contacts in the Marinco IEC and the nickel contacts in the chassis IEC socket? The Hubbell hospital grade plug has one brass and one nickel blade as well.
The copper conductor cord gave up a bit of detail, but the low end is definately fuller sounding.
I have some highly polished, all brass bladed plugs that that I could install on the silver plated copper wire and then direct wire that into the amp, bypassing the IEC socket. Do you think this might "warm up" the sound of the silver plated wire?
Follow Ups:
Silver-plated copper is typically used with Teflon insulation, while all-copper can be found with some sort of PVC or combination rubber-PVC insulation.Teflon insulation is the best for detail, but makes for a stiffer wire. Acoustic vibration in the power cord gets in to the equipment and may muddy the bass. Applying an acoustic damper that does not have bad dielectric properties would tame this problem. Alan Maher recommends the EAR C-1002 damping material sold by Michael Percy (although it is vinyl). I have not experimented with this, but I do know that vibration is an issue in all audio cables, and that the insulation found in UL-listed power cords does dull the sound.
You're right about the different insulation materials. Say, does anybody sell heavy guage/teflon coated OFC wire??
The process for applying Teflon insulation requires a high temperature and corrosive atmosphere. This is why most Teflon-insulated wire is silver-plated. There are processes that can accommodate bare copper, but they use a less-dense version of Teflon. Jon Risch has posted extensive information about this issue.Teflon is not a robust insulator for power cords because it has the property of flowing under pressure at room temperature. This means the power cord could develop a short if it were kinked or pinched. We audiophiles do all kinds of unsafe things with our AC, but no one would attempt to get UL listing for a Teflon-insulated power cord for general purpose use.
I still plan to experiment with the silver plated cable with polished brass and gold plated plugs. That's part of the fun of this hobby ;^] .
That is a common trait of silver plated copper wire , some folk love it some don't . You could probably warm it up a quite a bit with the gold plated furutech or p-079 oyaide plugs on your cable and your wall . YMMV . Duster could be more definitive than I . He's went thru alot of permutations on AC PC's .:))
I'll second the idea that silver-plated copper wire has a brighter, thinner sound, regardless of insulator, although Teflon seems to add to this brightness.
Most power cables I've built or auditioned have sounded inferior when using silver plated wire, while pure silver can be very good if matched with the right AC connectors.
Copper wire can be pretty amazing if used in a geometry that doesn't feature tons of inductance, which can make the sound 'muddy' and colored in the mids.
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