Copper, Silver, or Gold MC cartridge coils???

Don C

Well-Known Member
Jul 20, 2013
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Copper coils seem to be the most popular.

Silver coils seem to have the general trait of warmer midrange and extended high frequencies, by those that prefer them.

Copper has lower mass than silver and much less mass than gold. Better transients?

Silver has the best conductivity, followed by copper, then gold.

Can we draw any conclusions as to the type of sonic traits and preference of each type?

Any preferences and why your choice of type, or is there no big differences sonic wise?
 

marmota

Well-Known Member
Feb 3, 2016
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I've been thinking about that for a long time, and unfortunately, it seems that we can only know the answer comparing the exact same cartridge with the only difference being coil's material.

Despite lower conductivity and higher weight, gold has one clear advantage: it doesn't oxidize at all so crystal boundary issues don't exist at all. This could be extremely beneficial to the low level signals carried by a cartridge's coil, despite the higher weight and lower conductivity of gold.

Dave Slagle has a very interesting blog and he touches this subject, and he will compare gold vs silver coils in a cartridge:

I'm waiting for the comparison too, it is a very interesting subject IMO.
 
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Solypsa

Well-Known Member
Jun 7, 2017
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www.solypsa.com
Reading Slagle's thoughts on silver wire composition variables has been super interesting. Thanks for sharing!

Roman, the designer - builder behind the Sensitive Sound carts I represent, has recently switched to gold winding and platinum magnets for his top models after a long while using high purity copper and neo.

I continue to be amazed at the vigorous growth in analog this late in the digital era. I for one am still stoked on vinyl :)
 
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