The only benefit I've experienced from silver clad wire (in connection with teflon dialectric) is that for me they are easier to solder. I.e., I'm less likely to get a poor solder joint. That may not be very exotic but it's not trivial either. I'll leave it to other to debate whether there is frequency response issue.
silver restivity = (20?°C) 15.87 n??·m ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silver )
copper resistivity = (20 °C) 16.78 n?·m ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copper )
Same, same for thermal characteristics and same, same for overall impedence ... Silver is better for these reasons and more. Silver plated copper wire is as good as pure silver wire because (higher voltage) electrons flow on the outside of a wire.
Can us mortals hear the difference? ....
... just add Teflon
copper resistivity = (20 °C) 16.78 n?·m ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copper )
Same, same for thermal characteristics and same, same for overall impedence ... Silver is better for these reasons and more. Silver plated copper wire is as good as pure silver wire because (higher voltage) electrons flow on the outside of a wire.
Can us mortals hear the difference? ....
... just add Teflon Banned
Joined 2002
FastEddy said:silver restivity = (20?°C) 15.87 n??·m ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silver )
copper resistivity = (20 °C) 16.78 n?·m ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copper )
Same, same for thermal characteristics and same, same for overall impedence ... Silver is better for these reasons and more. Silver plated copper wire is as good as pure silver wire because (higher voltage) electrons flow on the outside of a wire.
Can us mortals hear the difference? ....
I use all Silver coated copper wire, all mill spec, I get it all off ebay. It all comes covered with Teflon, i use it in my speakers i use it all in my amps and i use it for speaker/power wire.
Extreamly nice to work with, solder flows very nice to it.
Jase
" ... Extreamly nice to work with, solder flows very nice to it. ..."
I found some very fine stranded pure silver wire (with tefon) about #12 AWG ... I discovered that it is a tremendous solder wick for picking up excess solder from other connections. I also use it for speaker leads, but quite honestly, I can't hear any significant difference, "golden ear" audio wise. It is posssible to measure very slight variations in resistance between the fine stranded silver and regular stranded #12 AWG copper, the silver being slightly less.
I found some very fine stranded pure silver wire (with tefon) about #12 AWG ... I discovered that it is a tremendous solder wick for picking up excess solder from other connections. I also use it for speaker leads, but quite honestly, I can't hear any significant difference, "golden ear" audio wise. It is posssible to measure very slight variations in resistance between the fine stranded silver and regular stranded #12 AWG copper, the silver being slightly less.
Banned
Joined 2002
FastEddy said:" ... Extreamly nice to work with, solder flows very nice to it. ..."
I found some very fine stranded pure silver wire (with tefon) about #12 AWG ... I discovered that it is a tremendous solder wick for picking up excess solder from other connections. I also use it for speaker leads, but quite honestly, I can't hear any significant difference, "golden ear" audio wise. It is posssible to measure very slight variations in resistance between the fine stranded silver and regular stranded #12 AWG copper, the silver being slightly less.
what you dont hear the sound from converting from one type of copper to the other with silver PFFFTT,, lol yeah its all a myth. I use it because its nice to work with and my power amps get hot so having the teflon insulator helps alot.
to having browsed through audio asylum too 
on the same question..... but just when you start to get paranoid -- a breath of fresh air from this place.... I also use silver plated copper wire with teflon insulation, but buy this from RS components in the UK (www.rswww.com).
I believe the insulation makes far more difference than the conductor, and the silver plating is used primarily to allow teflon to be applied without much conductor oxidation occuring. Teflon needs to be applied at a higher temperature than other insulations, and bare copper would oxidise at this temperature.
Not that it will make much difference, but doesn't silver oxide conduct? Copper oxide doesn't so oxidation of silver plated conductors is less of a problem.... I could be wrong....
I believe the insulation makes far more difference than the conductor, and the silver plating is used primarily to allow teflon to be applied without much conductor oxidation occuring. Teflon needs to be applied at a higher temperature than other insulations, and bare copper would oxidise at this temperature.
Not that it will make much difference, but doesn't silver oxide conduct? Copper oxide doesn't so oxidation of silver plated conductors is less of a problem.... I could be wrong....
SY said:
Talking of which, i went through a recent experience which has little to do with silver plated wire but befits a similar audience.
In short i removed an opamp from the signal chain and sat down for a listen. The change was far more pronounced than expected, especially taking into account that the opamp in question was a LM4562 fed from a Jung regulator with BGs.
Amazingly extended highs, more dynamics but curiously weaker bass. After a lot of headscratching i decided the new sound simply wasn't better. It only then dawned on me that the DUT was not at its usual position on the rack but in order to facilitate easy soldering i had moved it onto a metal speaker stand.
As soon as i put it back on top of the rack the sound went back to normal. The "amazing" highs disappeared, the bass came back, etc. Now i found it difficult to hear the absence of the opamp. It was audible but far from obvious.
The fact that equipment support can have such frighful effect on the perceived sound is just another reminder of the difficulties and dangers of subjective testing. But until someone figures a way to measure these things...
analog_sa said:
I wonder, before you chopped out the op-amp in question, did you check the circuit to see why that op-amp was included in the first place? If it was part of a frequency shaping/equalizing network it would be no surprise that things sounded different without the op-amp. Even if it were simply a wide bandwidth buffer, I would not be surprised that things sounded different. If it didn't sound different after removing the op-amp, what would you have proved? How many manufacturers throw in extra op-amps just to jack the cost of the equipment up?
I find it interesting that you miss the big lesson of the whole exercise which is that the engineers who designed the thing included the op-amp for a reason, certainly a very good one, and instead you focus on a probably imagined effect of the metal stand on which the circuit was resting.
It's like randomly pulling parts off your car's engine and noting that mysteriously, the performance changed and not for the better, but gosh, for some reason the power windows seem to work a little smoother.
This sort of silliness is what keeps the $1000 power cord sellers in business.
I_F
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