Copper versus Silver in speakers.

[Brian S]

Has anyone much experience of both copper and silver in similar speakers, in particular Audionote anj?

 

[droodzilla]

Both are excellent conductors of electricity. Copper is cheaper.

 

[hifinutt]

Ask Tom on art of sound ,he has had many of the silver versions of an_e

 

[Marky-Mark]

I can't speak to speakers (they ignore me), but silver over copper ethernet cable banishes buffer bloat while reducing latency and page loads as it brightens pixels and stuffs rude trolls. And, yes, the blacks are ocean-deep inky.

 

[Arkless Electronics]

Copper or silver speakers would be rather heavy

 

[Brian S]

Copper or silver speakers would be rather heavy

I did say 'in' speakers. I was hoping you were going to reassure me that there wasn't much in it. I. have used lower end Audionote with great satisfaction. The silver versions are much more expensive. Of course, much more than the wire is dfferent. Question is purely hypothtical, cost of 'very basic' i.e. LX Audionotes cost enough to convince my friends I must be insane. (considering the size of my income)

 

[Thighsofsteel]

Silver is approx 7% better conductor than copper.

 

[Brian S]

Silver is approx 7% better conductor than copper.

Thanks
BrianS

 

[Darth Vader]

Silver is approx 7% better conductor than copper.

Ah but its denser than copper so even allowing for the increased conductivity the weight for the same resistance would be higher. Might be a problem in tweeters........

Cheers,

DV

 

[h.g.]

Ah but its denser than copper so even allowing for the increased conductivity the weight for the same resistance would be higher. Might be a problem in tweeters........

and thermal conductivity, corrosion, cost as well as a few other things no doubt. Silver has some strong positive associations for audiophiles which I guess is why it gets used in products like Audio Note speakers which are not strongly constrained by technical considerations. If you ignore the cost which is possibly a plus rather than a minus for potential Audio Note customers it seems to be in the right ball park as a material for speaker coils and so is unlikely to be problematic. A case can be made for aluminium and some of its alloys as a better voice material than copper but there are practical issues.

As ever there are pros and cons when it comes to the choice of engineering materials to do a job but ultimately the product has got to get bought. Sacrificing a bit of technical performance to create something the marketing people believe will sell better is perfectly normal in engineering.

 

[PerF]

Silver is approx 7% better conductor than copper.

Nevertheless It screws the sound

Copper anyday thanks

 

[the_bat]

Nevertheless It screws the sound

And you base this on?

 

[PerF]

And you base this on?

Listening

 

[john & Jake]

Listening

+1

 

[davidsrsb]

Nevertheless It screws the sound

Copper anyday thanks

Because silver is expensive, so silver wire is usually very thin perhaps?

 

[Fatmarley]

I've only ever tried silver plated copper. Subjectively, It did something odd to the treble that I didn't like. I was expecting to prefer It - maybe I was suffering from reverse expectation bias?

 

[sq225917]

Yup

 

[DavidS]

Copper for me , I always think silver has a definite sound signature.

 

[john & Jake]

Hi, I'm glad there seems to be like minded people regarding silver cables. It matches my experience.
I have a Moth passive preamp with very thin silver wires and I'm considering rewiring it with copper.

 

[Hempknight]

I know Tannoy packaged pure silver cables with some of their supertweeter models, and there do seem to be some pervasive (myths?) beliefs about using silver wire with tweeters ? My massive Taiwaneese speaker cables have a single strand of pure silver in the copper wire to 'balance the treble' whatever that means.