What corporations offer pure silver audio cables?

No one that I have ever heard of. Pure silver would be too expensive and not very durable. A good copper wire with gold plated connectors should suffice your needs very nicely.

Silver turns black and that would cause resistance, gold plate on pure copper would the best.

kritiper, The DIY (do it yourself) private sellers offer this. I know it is expensive and as far as durability, pure silver is usually protected with other materials like gold-plated silver, teflon, etc. Silver is considered the best conductor of electricity, closely followed by copper. My only concern is buying from a private seller. I’m more comfortable buying from corporations.

Since you mentioned copper, what corporations offer pure copper balanced audio cables?

Tropical_Willie, yes, as I wrote above, the pure silver is usually plated with other materials, gold, teflon, etc.

I wouldn’t mind settling for copper if it comes from a corporation. Have any in mind that offer it?

Why do you need them? Why not silver plated? Is the audio section of your electronics composed of pure silver traces? I’m willing to bet not. Also audio signals just like AC power have the “skin effect” meaning that the signal is conducted near and on the surface of the conductor so solid silver is not necessary.

I really don’t think you can beat Monster Cables.

One thing about silver is it is not as flexible as copper. You can’t hear as well if your cable is snapped.

ARE_you_kidding_me, I’m not really interested in a debate on what the best material is for audio use. If you can just help me find what I need that would be great. This is what is offered by one of the private sellers I found online link: I’m looking for something like these cables but from a coporation instead of a diy.

The portable dap I own is made of pure copper.

zenvelo, thanks. I checked out monster cables. They don’t have what I need.

Just curious why you think you need them.
It may be hard to find, corporate made stuff needs to be profitable and it’s not exactly in their interest to sell something like this when the market for them is so small and they are selling copper/plated cables marked up 50–800% all day long. DYI may be your best option.

The simple answer is because the type of material used in audio equipment impacts the quality of the sound you hear.

You’re probably right about going with DIY. I suspect it is why I’m having a hard time finding what I need from corporations.

You’re talking about frequency response. Somewhere someone has more than likely tested every audio cable commercially available. May be worth looking into if you are looking for the best audio cable possible. Don’t be surprised if it’s not a $1000 cable though. Also curious what your exact audio application is.

Yes, the range of the frequency response can have a good range on the equipment, but it can only be appreciated with proper material on all ends of the equipment you use. You can hear the extra details in music that was previously unperceived with inferior materials. The music itself has to be recorded in high resolution and the player, the dac, and headphones need to support those resolutions.

I bought the AK380 copper edition. It is a high resolution portable dap-dac and can be used as a usb-dac.

Home recording? It’s not all in the materials it’s the design. You want the transmitting audio to look into a high Q ckt. You don’t need pure silver cables for this. I’m sorry but this is audiofile hype.

Not exclusively. If I want to listen to other recordings of let say, Chopin Nocturnes, I would buy the track in a high-resolution lossless audio file and then transfer it to the player for personal listening.

I agree. The chipsets and materials used can be made well, but what matters is how well it is implemented.

As for the material, this is exactly why I didn’t want to get into a debate. Audiophiles are in disagreement on this matter. If it wasn’t such a big deal, you wouldn’t even see it on the market. Corporations have been catering such materials because there is a large enough crowd that believes the type of material used in audio equipment matters. It is why you see pure copper editions. I guess they haven’t come around to audio cables yet. Some higher end headphones do come with better cable material but they’re not balanced or are balanced with only a single connector.

Monster is the biggest scam in audio.

It depends on the reason you’re buying their cable. If you buy their hdmi cable because you think it will make your tv speakers and TV picture look and sound better, then yeah, it is a scam. But, if the reason you’re buying their cable is because it is more durable, better insulated, there might some legitimacy into paying extra for that. However, these days, you can get durable cables for much cheaper than what monster offers. Monoprice comes to mind.

The retailer I worked at in college sold monster cables at a 400% or so markup over cost. They’re good cables but not worth the price. When it comes to audio cables a lower gage wire & high strand count, more electrical shielding and a durable sheath will make the largest difference. Materials will come after that. Given the cable has those parameters you will never detect the difference in copper vs silver. Never. You want gold plated for the corrosion/oxidation resistance. You want to avoid dissimilar metals because of the seebeck effect if your contacts are not also gold plated.

There isn’t a large difference in conductivity between silver and copper. Gold, however, will greatly reduce conductivity. The DIY link above avoids gold-plating or gold alloy in their pure silver or copper cable for this reason. Here’s the breakdown of what’s inside the the DIY cable link

I was thinking of maybe buying this sony copper cable link and just replacing the connectors with the connectors I need.

Oxidation on your connections will trump any difference there. Really though, you just need to stick to the same metal/plating on the connectors of the devices you are connecting.

I don’t see any shielding on the sony cable, surely it’s there though.

You mean if my player has gold outputs, then the connectors need to be gold? Or do you mean that if the cable is pure silver, then I need silver connectors?

As for sony, that is just the color of the sleeve.

You want the connector type on your player and listening device to match the connectors on your cable. Ideally you want all of it the same, cable connectors…everything but it’s not practical so I’m guessing your devices have gold plated contacts.

The contacts on the headphones are gold and the contacts on the dap-dac are gold. The only difference is the type of contact. My headphones require lemo connectors like this link while the dap-dac requires a standard 3.5mm connector like this link. If I go with these private sellers, which will likely be the case, then I can just request gold connectors on both ends of the audio cable. The only thing out of place would be the actual pure silver or copper cable.

I think you have your answer, gold plated contacts and pure copper in a high quality cable sounds like the way to go right?
If you can’t find a quality cable with the right ends then it is a matter of purchasing the proper ends, cable length and then soldering and dressing the cable or ordering it custom if you are not comfortable with the DIY route.

Yeah, I’m not comfortable with DIY or the private sellers, hence the question, but it seems I have no choice in this case because my search efforts are fruitless when it comes to corporate made products to suit my specific needs.

I’m debating if I should go with the private seller’s pure copper wire or their highest end model – Prion4. The highest end has a much better build quality but it also costs $1800 in contrast to the the copper cable which is only $600. Considering what you affirmed for me about built quality, I might end up getting their highest end.

The highest model offers better support, damping, insulation, and dielectric strength. It also provides a greater reduction of the skin effect, better shielding, lighter, lower inductance and capacitance, better enamel layer for preventing oxidation and cross-talk between strands, eliminating diadic junctions and their propensity for energy storage, dead spot prevention and static buildup protection, vibration damping and better equity in the distribution in each strand between surface and interior.

Honestly if your player and listening device are not the best you can get then that money would be better spent there, not in the cable. A $60 cable will be indistinguishable from a $600 one let alone $1800…. I mean yikes! I have bought cars for that.

The headphone and dap-dac are top tier, hence the attraction for the top tier audio cable. The copper audio cable is nothing to yawn at but I believe there is listening to music and then there is listening to music… Buying a cheap cable to compliment expensive equipment is like buying a Ferrari and feeding it cheap gas instead of premium.

I agree with you that if the equipment was average, a quality cable wouldn’t make a difference. I mentioned this point in an earlier response to you.

Cars for $1800? ....Toys?

$1800 cars were transportation.

That’s nuts. I’m out of touch.

What year did you buy it?
What year is the model?
What model type is the car?
What company is the car?
Where did you buy it? Car auction?
I’m guessing the milage was over a hundred thousand?

about 2002, needed transportation, Nissan sentra, 125K miles, drove it another 50k sold it for more than I bought it for.

I don’t know how old you are, where your cash comes from or what your profession is but buddy…I’d be investing that money if I were you. My guess is you’re about 21–24 have your first real job and are nowhere near thinking about the future yet. Correct me if I’m wrong.

Close. I’m 26. Actuary by trade. Working for almost 5 years now. I do invest some of what I earn for the future, but I also live in the present. I try to maintain a healthy balance between the two, however, I do put greater emphasis towards living in the moment. Life is more fun when you live in the moment and artistically. This should surely be balanced with reason and be agreeable with nature.

It is why my favorite music peices are from the classical era. The composers of that era created music that had a balance between reason and emotion. Both are in conflict with each other and yet they’re also in perfect harmony. Unlike the crappy pop music you hear today.

How about you? What do you do for a living? Age?

40, electrical engineer. Music is a hobby. Actuarial science is something I highly respect. I considered it myself at one time.

Oh, nice. I’m talking to the right guy about cables. Great trade. I too have great respect for it and considered it for myself at one point. My only gripe with engineering is that it isn’t as financially rewarding as one would expect it to be when you consider the fact that engineering is the hardest undergraduate program one can major in and requires intense education and experience. All that educational brutality and specialization for a salary cap of $300,000. That’s trash unless you really enjoy the trade. It’s more worthwhile to compliment engineering with an M.B.A so you can go into business for yourself.

This is the main reason I didn’t go into engineering. As an actuary, there is no salary cap, which means my skills and workaholism let me earn as much as I can.

There is no salary cap especially if you consult but the typical engineer is making 80–120k You don’t do it just for the money though.

That is not a lot of money for what you go through, especially, if you live in a high cost-of-living area. Enjoying the trade on its own is nice, but the lack of financial rewards limits the maximum potential of enjoyment in any other arena outside of work. On the bright side, it’s not as bad as the starving artist.

Talk about investing, I invested in property of a rural area and travel to the city for work. Works out well for me in a couple of ways. I reap the benefits of the higher salaries of the city. I reap the low cost-of-living in the rural area, and I genuinely enjoy living in a rural area. As an added bonus, I’m self-sufficient just on the alternative energy, grounded water supply, livestock, and food I grow on my own property. By I, I mean my co-owner handles that activity (2 family house). The only downside is the the couple of hours of travel to and from work, but I enjoy driving.

Most actuaries around here are at or below six figures. Average is about 70k according to salary surveys for the area. You must live on the west coast.

That’s odd. Where is here? The south? Average salary here (East coast) is between 150k-250k, but many make way beyond these figures over the years. Salary will also depend, partially, on how many actuarial exams the employee took. You need a minimum of 2 to start working. I have one more exam to go to complete them all.

East coast yes but in the south

Actuary avg

I would ask the mods to move this to social unless you want it all deleted. We’re off topic.

2016-Casualty-Salary-Survey”

2016-Health-Salary-Survey

2016-Life-Salary-Survey.

2016-Pension-Salary-Survey

Might as well move it to social.

Pretty good spread and the job growth rate for Actuaries is solid, you chose your profession wisely. Enjoy your toys now, you probably realize that better than most do. I suppose I should take back some of the shit I tossed at you for wanting to spend >$1000 on a cable. I threw $3k at a mountain bike last year. Work hard, play harder. Stick around and get to know some of the folks here.