ellisdj said:
Tin also seems to be used in the Black Rhodium cables as well whihc is also a bad conductor.
However one of the best demos at Bristol this year was using Black Rhodium cables throughout - that was the Harbeth / CAD room.
That was the cleanest imaging of the day for me - even it was lacking in fullness.
Furutechs top products all use Rhodium - this is because it does not tarnish and because in their words
Rhodium, a member of the exclusive platinum group, is the most costly and rare precious metal. It’s extremely hard and doesn’t corrode. Most people don’t think about it but most of world’s rhodium production goes into the catalytic converters under your car! Furutech chooses rhodium plating for their highest-performance cable lines. Numerous tests with different plating and treatments reveals that durable rhodium plating provides fast, powerful, controlled bass, an open and extremely palpable midrange with detailed and transparent mid- to upper-frequencies and a smooth, nuanced wideband tonal balance. Furutech recommends rhodium as the most refined plating metal.
I posted my theory on this earlier but in case you missed it:
We all know that any correctly sized and terminated low oxygen copper cable will sound the same as the next. It is a matter of scientific fact. However, what if it is the very fact that exotic aftersales cables are not “correctly” sized/terminated/materialed that is causing these detectably audible differences? Such an affect would of course be a degradation. A reduction in signal quality from that provided by a correctly sized and terminated low oxygen copper cable, but does that really matter?
I currently run an Audio Research front end to my system. It is not hifi and it is not accurate. It is mid 20th Century technology that was surpassed by its Solid State brethren many years ago. It does however sound wonderful and (to my ears) better than any SS electronics I have heard which on paper has technologically usurped it. Why is this? I believe it is because sometimes "perfection" can be improved upon.
I have previously owned Bryston and Chord Electronics front ends and they, especially the latter, are Hifi. They are accurate. They are audibly "perfect". They are also (to my ears) difficult to listen to. Sometimes too much to engage with and other times completely unengaging. High fidelity and accuracy do not necessarily translate in to musicality.
So here’s my point: Perhaps exotic after sales cables are actually designed to degrade the sound a little. To take some of the harshness out of the “HiFi” signal. Is there anything wrong with that? I don’t think there is.
If you crave absolutely accuracy and the highest fidelity in your music then go for the correctly sized and terminated low oxygen copper cable because Trev C et al are completely correct about that. If however you prefer a little jam in porridge then why not dabble in the dark arts and take the proverbial edges off…..