Improved signal path wiring

[Infinitely Baffled]

Hello, all. Does any knowledgeable person out there have a view on this dilemma:

I have a very nice old Croft pre-amp that I'm very fond of. As you may be aware, Croft equipment, being all hard-wired, is very suitable for tinkering and upgrades, and I have a couple of mods in mind for mine. One of them involves replacing the signal path wiring with pure silver wire. My question is this: obviously each "positive" signal path wire has its associated return path or earth wire (for example the wires which run from the earth tags on the chassis-mounted RCA input and output sockets to the star-earth point). In order to achieve the full benefit of this upgrade, do I need also to silver-wire those too?

By the way, have you seen the quality of the workmanship inside Glenn Croft's amps? - Absolutely stunning! Thanks, and cheers. Infinitely Baffled.

[Phil Y]

Hello,

I would say the answer to your question is yes.

You may already be aware that although silver is popular for HiFi use, not everybody likes it. Some consider it too bright sounding. I do not really have a strong view myself, but bearing this in mind, it might be wise just to wire up one or two inputs on the "positive" side only and see what you think.
It would be a lot of work to undo the whole lot if you did not like it.

I don't know what you have already done but replacing the wiring would be some way down the list for me.

Phil.

[bob orbell]

Yes, I completely agree with Phil, but I do have a disliking to silver wire and have removed it completely from all my kit. My thoughts would be to upgrade the power supply first, too many tweakers neglect this point, but in my opinion it can make the most positive change. BOB

[Phil Y]

Could it just be just a case of system tuning? My limited experience of silver is that it has a slightly "brighter lit" quality than copper. If you have spent years fine tuning your system to your taste (as DIYrs do) and then suddenly put in a load of silver wire it might well sound bright, but might the opposite also be true? If you had all siver cable from the start (cost means no one does this) then you would "tune" your system around that. If you then suddenly replaced it all with copper, might you not think - this copper is rubbish, it is really dull sounding.

Just a thought.

Audio Note like their silver and they always seem to have the best sounding system(to my ears) at the bristol HiFi show. Not at all "over bright" or "forward".

Phil.

[Infinitely Baffled]

Thanks, Fellows, for your thoughts on this. You have, between you, introduced a further dimension to my thinking on "upgrades". Heresy though it may be, I have at various times along the way been inclined to accept certain propositions as true, either because they have been told to me by someone whom I regard as a source of likely true information, or sometimes, I suppose, because everybody thinks it is so. Ridiculous, I know, but there we are. The "silver-is-good" belief comes partly from a recommendation made to me many years ago - specifically to modify my Croft pre-amp with silver wire - by a very authoritative and experienced figure in the Hi-Fi industry, who was an ex-BBC sound engineer and who I pretty much reckoned had "golden ears". It also comes about - funny that you should mention this, Phil - from exposure to Audio Note equipment. I have a couple of bits of A-N kit in my set-up and know from dealing with them how much they value silver in the design of their gear. (Lowther too, incidentally). So, yes, I can see that it seems silly to upgrade on the basis of second-hand evidence, but I imagine that you can see how it happens.

So anyway, where does this leave my proposed upgrade? Well, I did it earlier today, along the lines that you suggested: just a couple of the source paths and positive side only. Did I like the outcome? Yes, I did - it was quite exciting but it did emphasize the "leanness" of the sound that I am getting from that set-up. In fairness, that is something I had begun to notice for a little while now. After many years of living in bliss with that system, which plays through Quad ESL57s, I had started to feel that, though it is commendably "airy", it has a tendency to sound a little lightweight sometimes - something I started to notice when I bought a pair of Audio Note AN-J loudspeakers for the other set-up I use upstairs. The A-Ns are just as incisive as the Quads, but have a lot more weight from the waist down (if you can see what I mean). Given that the Croft pre-amp is ultimately destined to take its place in the upstairs system, with single-ended-triode amplification and the AN-Js, I think it all might work out just fine in the end!

So thanks very much, both of you, for your input on this. It has been iteresting both audio-wise, and - as always - interesting to hear other folks' views on a subject. Cheers and regards. Infinitely Baffled.