Zanash silver ic's

[PAG]

I have been wondering about trying/changing different cables for a while,and i was very interested in trying pure silver (ar the mo,i'm using silver plated Black Rhodium). After trolling the boards over here and Zerogain, i came across many members using Zanashs' cables, and got intouch with him on the provisio on trying out his silver solid core cables.
After a few emails back and forth, he sent me a pair of very well constructed silver interconnects to try out with no obligation to buy.
They use good quality locking plugs which grip the phonos superbly,and tte cables are very well finished in black and white sheathing and heatshrink.
Now,the effects on my system:

Definately smoother all round,and with a more flowy presentation...a tad more musical,less hi-fi,but no loss of air and depth. The bass is the same. very good cables,and if you suffer from harshness in the treble,i'm sure these will tame it down a bit. He's sending me some silver solid core 'speaker cables next week to evaluate too, and it will be interesting to hear the synergy with the interconnects.

[uzzy]

PAG wrote:

I have been wondering about trying/changing different cables for a while,and i was very interested in trying pure silver (ar the mo,i'm using silver plated Black Rhodium). After trolling the boards over here and Zerogain, i came across many members using Zanashs' cables, and got intouch with him on the provisio on trying out his silver solid core cables.
After a few emails back and forth, he sent me a pair of very well constructed silver interconnects to try out with no obligation to buy.
They use good quality locking plugs which grip the phonos superbly,and tte cables are very well finished in black and white sheathing and heatshrink.
Now,the effects on my system:

Definately smoother all round,and with a more flowy presentation...a tad more musical,less hi-fi,but no loss of air and depth. The bass is the same. very good cables,and if you suffer from harshness in the treble,i'm sure these will tame it down a bit. He's sending me some silver solid core 'speaker cables next week to evaluate too, and it will be interesting to hear the synergy with the interconnects.

Before you lash out lots of dosh on speaker cable there are a few hundred in here who will tell you to try Van Damme OFC copper ones first. Used by many recording studios flexible and well made cable.

Many say that it knocks the QED silver stuff out of the court.

My recommendation is similar which is OFC copper with as many strands in each lead as possible. So that is the dearest Van Damme for the above fans (minuscule in price by comparison to yours) and I would say the big thick copper single wire job from Maplin with spade connectors (the wire inside the sheeth is multistranded and the stranded "rope" is about a quarter of an inch thick) :nerd:

Have fun

Uzzy

[Dik Dolan]

I use a couple of pairs of his au/ag silver/gold interconnects, they are very very good. Detailed, open and smooth, very natural soundind... and Zanash is a top bloke, only does it for beer money and wants you to be happy before he takes your money.

[Miller-8]

How much is the Zanash interconnect?

[Dik Dolan]

I can't remember exactly, about £140 I think (for his au/ag)

[Purite Audio]

If you want to try the very best,give this man a call,the Silver is exquisite the palladium is simply sublime.
http://www.s-arrowcables.com/page10.html

[s2000db]

There's no metallurgical reason (or other)why one metal or conductor will sound different from another metal or conductor, unless in the construction method they've changed the LCR values......

Cables are very much like Swiss watches (and I like Swiss watches btw) they can be bloody expensive but don't work any better than £10 Casio's (in fact worse..)

[Purite Audio]

You will have to listen to them won't you?

[uzzy]

s2000db wrote:

There's no metallurgical reason (or other)why one metal or conductor will sound different from another metal or conductor, unless in the construction method they've changed the LCR values......

Cables are very much like Swiss watches (and I like Swiss watches btw) they can be bloody expensive but don't work any better than £10 Casio's (in fact worse..)

Ifyou cannot measure it, I agree there should not be a difference, however, I have heard an EAR 509 rewired with silver wire inside and it sounded brighter tizzier with less bass afterwards. Whether this was the wire or the soldering or something else I do not know. But what is certain is the most conductive of all metals are silver, copper and gold in that order. Silver is also the most thermally conductive element, and the most light reflecting element. Silver also has the unusual property that the tarnish that forms on silver is still highly electrically conductive.

So now that we know Silver is the most conductive - technically it should be the ideal carrier but as we know it is so expensive that copper is generally used as it is not far behind and is far cheaper.

Technically, therefore, cables made out of silver shoud be superior and can be measured to be so through their better conductivity. It would also account for the sound differences when silver is present.

Because of its expense it is relatively thin cable with only a few strands and I have not had the chance to audition a 200 plus stranded silver cable to see how it compares with a copper one of the same proportions.

I am convinced that in the amplifier the high end and tizziness was caused through thinner cabling and cable routing which was shortened to cut costs by the Japanese person who did it but perhaps Tim the designer might comment on that one some time.

But is does to some extent show that Silver can sound different to copper. To test the theory with loudspeaker leadsyou need to use copper wires of the same proportions to compare against the silver ones.

Many top end tone arms now use silver wire but that is because the lenght is short and the profile thin (and from what I can see they use the same amount of metal as a copper wired one).

Uzzy

[s2000db]

uzzy wrote:

s2000db wrote:

There's no metallurgical reason (or other)why one metal or conductor will sound different from another metal or conductor, unless in the construction method they've changed the LCR values......

Cables are very much like Swiss watches (and I like Swiss watches btw) they can be bloody expensive but don't work any better than £10 Casio's (in fact worse..)

Ifyou cannot measure it, I agree there should not be a difference, however, I have heard an EAR 509 rewired with silver wire inside and it sounded brighter tizzier with less bass afterwards. Whether this was the wire or the soldering or something else I do not know. But what is certain is the most conductive of all metals are silver, copper and gold in that order. Silver is also the most thermally conductive element, and the most light reflecting element. Silver also has the unusual property that the tarnish that forms on silver is still highly electrically conductive.

So now that we know Silver is the most conductive - technically it should be the ideal carrier but as we know it is so expensive that copper is generally used as it is not far behind and is far cheaper.

Technically, therefore, cables made out of silver shoud be superior and can be measured to be so through their better conductivity. It would also account for the sound differences when silver is present.

Because of its expense it is relatively thin cable with only a few strands and I have not had the chance to audition a 200 plus stranded silver cable to see how it compares with a copper one of the same proportions.

I am convinced that in the amplifier the high end and tizziness was caused through thinner cabling and cable routing which was shortened to cut costs by the Japanese person who did it but perhaps Tim the designer might comment on that one some time.

But is does to some extent show that Silver can sound different to copper. To test the theory with loudspeaker leadsyou need to use copper wires of the same proportions to compare against the silver ones.

Many top end tone arms now use silver wire but that is because the lenght is short and the profile thin (and from what I can see they use the same amount of metal as a copper wired one).

Uzzy

You've hit the nail on the head there Uzzy, in reality you're never comparing like with like, most silver conductors used in hifi are somewhat thinner cross section to the copper ones they replace, which alters their LCR values - the conductivity difference between copper and silver are so close, that similar diameter conductors should be used as a direct replacement (until you get extremely thin).

btw gold is the most highly reflective metal, which is why they wrap sattelites in gold foil to keep them cool..

[Papa Lazarou]

Dana - i'm not doubting your expertise in metallurgy etc.

If you believe cables sound identical please pay me a visit - i have 2 pairs of XLRs here that may change your mind.

[earl of sodbury]

uzzy wrote:

... Silver also has the unusual property that the tarnish that forms on silver is still highly electrically conductive. ...

Aaaarrrggghh!!! I wish I had a pound for every time I read that!

The main tarnish forming on silver is Silver Sulphide (NOT Oxide).

What is the historical significance of Silver Sulphide?

It was the first SEMICONDUCTOR, recognised by Faraday in 1833!!!

Please spread the word!

[s2000db]

Papa Lazarou wrote:

Dana - i'm not doubting your expertise in metallurgy etc.

If you believe cables sound identical please pay me a visit - i have 2 pairs of XLRs here that may change your mind.

Phil, I've never said that cables don't sound different, in fact I've got interconnects that do sound different. What I'm saying, is that the composition of the conductor shouldn't affect the sound quality per se, but the way it's constructed will.. wrt to lcr values. After all, think how many different metals the signal travels through from cd to speaker terminals, pcbs, solder, component legs, ic,s etc etc

Do you think that a relatively poor conductor such as lead, antimonyor bismuth would sound bad in a system?

[Papa Lazarou]

I haven't got a clue Dana. I cannot explain cables etc - i just trust my lugholes.

[s2000db]

earl of sodbury wrote:

uzzy wrote:

... Silver also has the unusual property that the tarnish that forms on silver is still highly electrically conductive. ...

Aaaarrrggghh!!! I wish I had a pound for every time I read that!

The main tarnish forming on silver is Silver Sulphide (NOT Oxide).

What is the historical significance of Silver Sulphide?

It was the first SEMICONDUCTOR, recognised by Faraday in 1833!!!

Please spread the word!

You're very correct there Paul

[earl of sodbury]

s2000db wrote:

earl of sodbury wrote:

uzzy wrote:

... Silver also has the unusual property that the tarnish that forms on silver is still highly electrically conductive. ...

Aaaarrrggghh!!! I wish I had a pound for every time I read that!

The main tarnish forming on silver is Silver Sulphide (NOT Oxide).

What is the historical significance of Silver Sulphide?

It was the first SEMICONDUCTOR, recognised by Faraday in 1833!!!

Please spread the word!

You're very correct there Paul

:dude:

[s2000db]

Papa Lazarou wrote:

I haven't got a clue Dana. I cannot explain cables etc - i just trust my lugholes.

There's nothing wrong with that

It's an interesting subject nevertheless......

[earl of sodbury]

s2000db wrote:

Do you think that a relatively poor conductor such as lead, antimonyor bismuth would sound bad in a system?

Depends chiefly on how its implemented - a large enough CSA of a poorconductor should theoretically sound the same as a lesser CSA of a more conductive material - get it "wrong", such as Van den Dul's Carbon-fibre conductors in their interconnects, and the cable audibly acts as a low-pass filter...

[JANDL100]

I'm with s2000db (Dana) here, I think.

I am a TCB (True Cable Believer) - and I've had loads of cables made from copper, silver, even palladium (sad git that I am). The photo is of my erstwhile RS Duet palladium i/c.

I am far from sure that conductor type makes a difference to the sound. Although I'd probably make an exception for silver-plated copper, which generally seems to highlight leading edges for some reason.

I rather tend to the belief (given my experience) thatconstruction method has the most sonic impact.

[nixon_fiend]

well, to bridge the gap betixt zanash and 'construction properties' . see here -

http://www.zerogain.com/forum/showthread.php?t=11273

thread on zerogain that did just that