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I do for sure. I've been sharing a strand of KCAG on my CDPs for the last year and have come to the conclusion that the CDPs sound far and away better with it than with any other interconnect that I've tried.I hear audiophiles claiming the CDPs sound bright, brittle and harsh and I've heard the same thing said about silver interconnects.
No I'm not trying to claim silver interconnects make CDPs sound better but in my experiences CDPs (at least two of mine) do sound better with Kimber KCAG.
Follow Ups:
As a former cable manufacturer, I can tell you that it is very difficult to find pure, dead-soft silver.
IME Van den Hul, Kimber and Harmonic Technology know where to buy good silver and avoid the all-too-common lean/bright silver sound.
Most so-called silver cables are made with sterling silver, an alloy of silver, nickel and copper made for jewelers, not for audio.
nt
I use Homegrown Audio Silver Lace throughout. Never go back.
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The best interconnects I've used are a simple 4 (24 AWG) strands of solid core 4N (99.99%) purity silver with cotton dielectric and Eichman silver bullet connectors.I've tried a few different silver IC's and found that air dielectric designs are important to the naturalness of the sound and break in very quickly. This would seem to support the notion that silver interconnects ae sensitive to dielectric absorption of signal.
I find silver IC's to be neutral, smooth, fast detailed sound with lots of inner resolution. The resolution exposed in the bass registers is especially gratifying.
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I found that the AN-V silver cable is an improvement over the AN-Lexus interconnect, particularly in the trebble and somewhat in the detail department. It has the same warmth as the AN-V cable, too, which really surprised me. Dollar-for-dollar, though, i think the AN-Lexus is the best buy out there.
I've used a number of silver ICs with varying results - AZ Silver Reference II, Argent Pursang and TG Audio HSR High Purity (very tasty) as well as my current reference, the KS-1030.However...
I tried a pair of JPS Labs Aluminata ICs from the DAC to the preamp a week ago, and they are now on order. They were a significant improvement over the Kimbers, albeit at twice the price.
nt
Best Regards,
Chris redmond.
My experience was that my previous CD player's sound was greatly improved when I went from DH Labs BL-1 interconnects to Alpha Core Goertz Micropurl AG's, which are silver. Of course, in addition to using different materials for the conductors, the two ICs are of vastly different design and have different electrical specs . . . so who knows to what the difference is attributable. There was a modest incremental improvement when I upgraded to that company's "triode quartz" IC, which also is silver. In each case, the length of the IC was the same (1/2 meter) and everything else was the same.I use the Triode Quartz with my current SACD player and have not experimented further.
Even in my budget system (see Inmate systems), my DIY silver/Teflon/Eichmann bullets ICs "cleaned the windows" you thought were already clean. Excellent bang-for-buck upgrade.
nt
I’m trying silver (Crystal Cable Piccolo) for the first time. Everything is simply cleaner, more articulate, and brighter in terms of illumination. I’m not hearing any harshness or much of anything…it’s just more invisible.I think some of the edginess is inherit in the cd, but more so from a dirty (jitter, RFI) source signal. Probably would not have liked the silver as much without first addressing the dirty signal part.
I have found Siltech to work great for my needs. Excellent sound.
Silver does it for me too.....bright brittle and harsh cables are for me the ones made from silver plated copper...the worst of both worlds. my diy silver cables sound fast clean and have a buttery smoothness, may be just a hint of lack of body....
I've addressed that in my latest efforts adding a notoriously expensive and poor conducter to the silver ... I expect any of the rare earth metals will produce similar results but slightly different flavours .
I use Silversmith I/C's (and Acapella silver speaker cables) and the sound is awesome. However, I'm sure that there are crappy silver cables out there and great copper ones. As ever in audio it seems to be the how the technology is used as opposed to just the technology that matters.Cheers,
Silver has the tendency to soften the top end, which is often a good thing with digital sources.
I use Audio Note AN-Vx silver interconnects from my CDP to preamp. Works very well for me. I like them.
Silver rules! I've been using Kondo's KSL-LP as well as the digital KSL-LPd and have no desire to try anything else.
Smooth, open, transparent, and clean sounding. Absolutely no brightness, brittleness, harshness, grain, or glare. They will have to pry these interconnects from my cold, dead hands!
I started by replacing the crappy U-jumpers between amp and preamp on my NAD with Silvery First Y silver ICs. They really improved the sound quite a bit and no harshness or brightness. They're still in that key spot in my rig.Bought an older Silver Audio set of silver ICs for my CDP. Those were great- again, no brightness - for years. But swapped them out when I started using Berylium Copper ICs from Auricle Audio Design. Now I use the Auricle Be/Cus in most other places and they are more natural and balanced, while equally revealing as silver if not moreso.
I wouldn't hesitate to recommend silver, but always make sure to remind people that it's synergistic and idiosyncratic with cabling! Al Sekela has taught me well that RFI intermodulation artifact control is exceedingly important in removing what people think of as "brightness" and harshness and glare and sibilence, etc. So it may be a matter of factors other than the silver wire itself.
In fact, I'm pretty sure that the low metal mass terminations in the Auricles are equally important to that balance and transparency as the metal in the wire. YMMV.....
I was not aware they made a copper IC. I have used the Auricle Audio Signature silver cables and liked them. I may have to try the Be/Cu out.
He now markets his "Encore" and "Encore Ka" (for Kapton?) lines on Audiogon. Those are the two that I'm using. Both excellent. Ka is even better than original Encore. Both Beryllium Copper wire and low metal mass terminations. Rather stiff cables and you don't want to be pulling on the terminations carelessly, but they sound beautiful in my system. I recommend them very highly.I've nver seen his silver line. Are we talking about the same guy?
Yes we are talking about the same guy. I got two pairs of his Encore Signatures via auction which I thought he told me were silver, but now that I went back and looked at his ad on Audiogon it appears I may already have the Be/Cu model. Joe was nice enough to send me an Encore and Ka along with my purchase.Do you know anything about the Encore Signature model, it is the next step up from Encore. For the money these cables are quite good.
Joe suggested that I might try these. Future purchase, but have no current experience of them.He's a very conscientious seller and builder. So I'd expect that they too would be an excellent sounding and valuable purchase. No worries with Joe!
i use apl hi-fi silver reference i.c.'s. absolutely the best i've had in my system... and i've tried many many different copper, silver and mixed alloys.
I have been using a Creative Cable Concepts Silver Bullet for a digital cable and Crystal Cable Micros for the DAC to preamp for the last month or so. Much more detail, yet not bright like I was lead to believe the sound would be. Quite neutral actually. I just swapped out the Silver Bullet for a copper Music Note (Star Sound) digital cable. It will need to break in some more but the differences are apparent already.
Most certainly, silver is the way to go. I use nothing but Audio Note AN-V silver cable for all I/C's and also for the digital cable from transport to DAC.Although, I have heard that some makes of silver cable out there aren't very good at all.
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