Final SKW cables analysis: NOT MADE with OCC copper!! 

Thank you! You are the first YT that actually put any cables to proper metal analysis. With so many fakes out there it is possibly the most useful service that a review channel can do.

Well done and 10 / 10 for sharing all of this. We have to trust manufacturers but when they are found out to by lying it undermines trust on their products for ever - there is no way back. Thanks so much Guido for sharing this.

From what I've noticed, with a basic "mid-fi" ($5-$10k) transparent system I can't tell a difference between my cables and wires. These days I focus on decent connectors and gauge size with certain products. This is just my experience though. I don't spend more than $50 bucks on interconnects or $100 on speaker cables...though I've spent a lot more in the past. Lots of hi-fi companies aren't honest with what they are selling..I'm a huge fan of tests and investigations like this..as well as other forums that do testing like this as well on components and speakers. Good stuff.

I am very impressed that someone went to the length of contacting a university to ask them and then have them conduct a structural analysis on the copper material in a cable. This has to be a first in the sphere of audiophile journalism. Kudos!

Thank you for such a comprehensive investigation into these cables. You are definitely a great researcher Guido. In the end it's all about the sound quality. I trust your hearing and your reputation in the Audio Review Community. Well done!

Very detailed analysis！Honestly, I have used many speaker cables, and have been working with high-end audio for many years. I'll be fair to say that SKW's speaker cables are the best I have ever used, in terms of workmanship and visually. Also the cable here is from the processing far above the price I paid and such a price / performance ratio is really rare. It also refreshed my perception of what is "made in China". Good feeling is bigger than everything. That's enough.

I doubt most people thought SKW was using OCC, maybe the same few who thought Mofi was using original masters. However, they shouldn't be misrepresenting either. Really glad you went to the trouble of investigating - good work and speaks to your honesty.

Happy help out, Guido! Glad we could collab on this!

Whatever these are made of, the sound of these cables is very good. Also the overall build quality seems high. The plugs are gorgeous, not too tight, not too loose. I am using stereo RCA cables. So far, really satisfied.

Thanks - I am glad that you did this. Thumbs up for the Waterloo lab too!

Hi Guido. I love the thoroughness and honesty of this investigation. The truth should always be served flat out. You do it well Mate. Stay awesome. All the best from Denmark.

Your transparency is appreciated!

Thank you for this! I did buy these cables upon your recommendation. They are absolutely great cables. For the price these are amazing. Your effort here for truth is superb. Thank you!

Your Honesty is much appreciated.

Thanks man, I have been wanting to get a set of those after I watched how excited you were when you reviewed them they seemed to good to be true. Thanks for getting to the bottom about them. Good job.

Thank you for your integrity. This is a very rare and valuable personality traight. I stand and applaud that.

I did purchase the SKW speaker cables based partly from your video, but I had purchased SKW interconnects from Amazon in the past and considered them very high quality. I just needed a slight push over the ledge 😂. Thanks for disclosing. Very honest 😇

Great video, great topic. This brings more clarity to the obscurantist audio cables subworld. Please, consider to continue producing this topic videos, with others such as QED, CARDAS, Audioquest. 🙏🏽 THANK YOU !

Fantastic and helpful informative video and greatly appreciative of the Prof from Waterloo University

Brilliant job by both of you! We need more investigative science like this in the audio YT community.

This is outstanding attention to detail. Marvelously comprehensive! Impressive process, by Prof. Gerlich and so thorough on your end. This brings forward the question of whether it is the arrangement and design combined with the shielding and terminations - both process of termination and quality of the terminations themselves) - that might have the biggest result than the purity of the copper itself? If it's "relatively" pure and of an appropriate gauge, then that may be more than good enough. That is, of high copper purity and not too "grainy". This type of test could shed some light on what's really important overall, or what could be considered a decent cable with the right combination of elements. And not necessarily "total" purity as the biggest worthwhile factor.

I tried a lot of different speaker cables including some DIY sets, and I always came back to the SKW Audiophile Speaker cable. They just sound better than any of the others, and look really good doing it!.

Never seen your stuff before. But I appreciate the research and work you put into this video

This was hands down the coolest and most interesting cable video I've ever seen. Thanks.

Thanks Guido. The truth is, as you discovered, a good sounding cable doesn't necessarily have to conform to a single set of guidelines for manufacture. The proof is always in the listening. I used to make a digital cable out of rectangular silver plated copper. I had no idea that it would work until I tried it. Also one needs to remember that a simple cable is also a system made up of connector raw material, shaped, made to certain sizes and manipulated by twisting, braiding tc. Then there is the quality of the connectors not to mention the dielectric or lack of one. Purity of the materials. and even the plating matter. Is the gold plating attached to the copper space lug with a ferrous metal like nickel or silver which is a better conductor. Also a factor is the type of solder used or indeed is the cable cinched on with a screw or in a crush ,(Gold plating needs a binder to attach to copper or brass or it flakes off) type of solder less connection. Having made cables for a business for fifteen years I can tell you it all matters to a greater or lesser degree. You just need to get the recipe right and that is the magic and talent of the designer and what you pay for over and above the cost of materials. I once ha a customer berate me because the packaging for my cables was not up to his standards. Apparently the container made a difference to him.

Wow, very nice of the team to analyse the material like this! And very positive to be so open about it Guido. Very cool! I'm still thinking about trying the set of speaker cables though.. But it is a bit dodgy to call it something else right..

So I saw this video and my takeaway was that, although not occ, these are still very well made cables which look great. I am a cable skeptic anyway so tend to buy on looks, build quality and price. So I bought a 4m pair and boy, they are gorgeous with that fantastic termination system. Also they sound great, though I am aware of the power of psychoacoustics. At just over $220 delivered to the UK I think they are one of the best bargains in hifi.

Thank you so much for your deep analysis. A few months ago I bought a power cable and a rca cable, they works very well but on the leaflet there is no written indication about OCC copper. Good products but fake advertising.

You know, I bought this brand on Amazon for my Technics TT 1200GR. I have to say. They crest some pretty damn good sound. I still would buy them again knowing this though. But it’s great to see that it was too good to be true.

Every time I watch one of your videos, I get the urge to get one of my N4520/N4522's out and play them 😁

🙋‍♂️GUIDO…THANKS 🙏FOR. YOUR HONESTY …AND EFFORTS 😅 TO SET THE RECORD STRAIGHT 👍🤗😎💚💚💚

I appreciate the video. I have their adudiophile cables, and while I think they're good for the price, it's disheartening to know they're falsely advertising products.

Sometime ago I bought a pair of SKW RCA Interconnects, after seeing videos here in the channel glorifying SKW speaker cables. Well... after comparing to my Supra Anniversary and Cardas Golden Cross it was VERY obvious they were not even in the same league of those. Sold quickly thru local Ebay and would never buy anything from them again. So, no surprise there. Only surprise is the channel still recommending this damn things.

Thanks, and we’ll done. As we all know good quality cables make a difference in a reasonable quality or hi-end system . With good quality, well made cables you can hear the difference and that’s all that matters.

Thank you Guido for the usual contributions. real data and scientific analysis is always necessary. But an ethical aspect is missing in the analysis. Would you trust a company that lies to you? In what other aspects could they be lying to you and to all? then, knowing that they are lying, would you make a positive evaluation of the product despite the fact that the company's ethics are not adequate? I would take a more radical stance and return the product and not buy any more from them. It's good to be a scientist, but not naive. and it is not because the company is Chinese, there are examples of unethical companies in all countries

Hi, Guido. Thanks for the study, it was very illuminating. Makes you wonder what you are getting every time you order a cable that the manufacturer claims is constructed with specific materials. I have Zavfino and other cables that are, hopefully, made with OCC copper as claimed. That said, SKW cables are good performers, whatever they are made with. (But I do prefer the Zavfino Nova over the SKW.) However, I will think twice about ordering anything else from SKW, I don't like being mislead. BTW, you and Tharbamer have inspired me to make my own speaker cables. They might not look quite as nice as the store bought cables, but can be better performers for much less money!

Excellent video!!

Excellent

I have a few of these in my system. Sort of sad they are not better copper. The price, connectors and shielding are very good on these cables.

Very interesting and useful video, of course you can really trust them but for the price they sound good. It would be useful to test the cables not the jumpers

ANA[DIA]LOG did not mute himself! Just kidding, thank you for sharing this -- very honorable!

wow what a great sharing. thanks.

What I never understood is what happens to the OCC cables copper structure when one bends the cable a few dozen times. I mean this something one can expect from OCD audiophiles who are in the habit of messing with their cables and loudspeaker positioning, exchanging components in their system etc. all the time. If this does have an effect to the structure maybe we will soon see another specification for cables: OCD AP OCC. [Edit] 10:40 Question answered here. Thank you for answering this. The other thing is why is it that we see OCC mostly specified for loudspeaker cables but not for signal cables. I get that signal cables are usually less than a metre long but that does not stop audiophiles who have dual monophonic amplifiers systems from looking out for OCC cables even when these are not much longer than one meter!

Great video! Would be amazing to do something like this with the likes of Audioquest cables

I have a couple of RCA interconnects from SKW and really I can’t complain. The quality is there like you said, but this is great research. Grain structure matters! maybe not sonically though. It is the principle of information given on advertisement. Sadly this looks like MOFI all over again. Great product. Wrong info advertising.

Curious how the terminations looked. Important for good sound as well.

Thank you for sharing this information. It would be great to do this on other brands too, like Audioquest for example.

The biggest red flag for me is the price of these Skw cables. Genuine OCC copper cables cost much more. Thank you for this video. Excellent work!

Excellent work, Guido! I think that the biggest story that has been lost is this: how does SKV make such good OFC cables for the price? Is it the silver foil and the weird C shapes? 😂 I bought a lot of these cables, and have been very happy with them, better than anything else I’ve had. And I am not paying five times more for real OFC if my ears are happy!

I have done Spectragrams of ofc vs OCC. Very obvious differences. Differences that affect sound in many beneficial ways. Higher peaks, no cutoff, separation, saturation, etc.... Means more robust deeper sound through entire spectrum. Cleaner on impacts and extended vocals. It's superior sound and yields very similar graphic as mp3 vs OCC. Significant fact that means with SKW OCC cable is comparable to listening to wave music files as opposed to mp3. Can't hear that difference then don't worry about it.

Thank you for videos like this!! Science is very important in hifi

Tx for the info. It was vital because if it had come from another source that would be the end of your credibility. For me it is the end of credibility of SWK.

I am a fan of SKW, although they are not occ, SKW's cables do give the impression of high quality.

Hello Guido, first thanks for all you audio related videos on RU-vid, i find them a joy to watch👍🏻 About this video you mentioned that occ copper is the best material for speaker cable, but is there a difference with ofc copper. And what are the best benefits of occ copper speaker cables. Now i have a problem with my particular set up, because to my left speaker i need at least 7,5-8 meters because my amplifier is placed right. So about your story of thousands of euro’s for a pair of cables, do you have any suggestion what i can buy which in your oppinion is a good but affordable speaker cable for my situation. Thank you in advance for your answer. And if i can make a suggestion for a coming video, i like a new version of audiophile jazz vinyl albums🙌🏻🙌🏻🙌🏻

To be honest with you, these companies calling it occ, is just a marketing ploy, it might not be occ, but that doesn't mean they are rubbish, how do they sound? Brilliant video by the way👍

Most of users do not care of this fact. It's still a metal, not a semiconductor. Turn 0.1dB volume up to compensate 0.01Ohm or an extra resistance.

good job...

I would like to know the results of the same analysis on the Yarbo & Ramm Audio cables also.😆

As the matter of fact every component in your sound system the terminals are OCC, the copper foil on your PCBs are also OCC, the NOS vacuum tubes are nickel and even iron, but OCC. So why not use interconnects and speaker cables made of OCC copper. It really makes sense!

I'm using some ATaudio cables that claim to be OCC. I'm not sure, but they sound great and have excellent audio performance, not lagging behind my Audioquest (Rocket 44, nothing fancy).

Likely aluminium surrounded by copper. Nice to see your integrity at the end of the day.

Hi pals Ι' ve heard a lot of eponymous speaker cables from 4e/m to 120e/m [off the reel] and i can frankly say that the true giant killers are the CANARE 4 S 11 at 7,5e/m unless the total price of the hi fi setup [source-amp-speakers]exceeds 15000e and there is need or readiness for some special and far more expensive cables P,S = professional cable brands BELDEN ,CANARE,MOGAMI do not state the number of '' N '' regarding the purity of copper used on their models but say just ''bare copper'' ,so watch out for ''snake oil'' , Greetings from Athens, GREECE

thank you for your videos . may i suggest acquisition of quality oscilloscope and attempt to observe differences in signal wrt different cables .

Great video. Zero surprise. I ignore all claims of OCC, over than necotech from trusted source. I can afford/ justify making my own neotech interconnects. Speaker cable in OCC is out of my reach.

I’ve just started using SKW and from the basic cables you get with most components there is a huge difference. I’d say I’m happy with them.

Would love to see and hear a test between Hi-Fi speaker cables and lampshade cord. Seems I recall Klipsch speakers recommend lamp cords at one time.

Invaluable info! I'm still an SKW customer, great cables! But they need to update their Amazonz

I went crazy and have 24' long 9AWG Neotech Silver OCC for my fronts :)

Very good investigation. Price is usually a good indicator of quality but not always. What do you think of Furutech PC-OCC copper? and Furutech Alpha-OCC copper? Cheers.

Anyway the quality is still good😂 price is there, I don’t mind sometimes. Practicality is what i concerned. To be honest, I didn’t but it because of its components-OCC or OFC. What I can see its quality really reach my point far.

Subscribed

Please do the same for ramm audio cable. Based on your video I bought several meters of the cable. Most power cords, speaker cables I bought from ramm.

I purchased skw occ power, speaker and rca cables. Just the rca wasn't good enough (compared to neo by oyaide class s and oehlbach nf14 master and more expensive options). Power cable is actually very good. I bought 3m and cut it into half and added viborg ve and vf502 and the original plugs were just as good in comparison. Just different flavors. I haven't watch the video yet though they better choose you as the ambassador for the European market. Ps: burn in time is essential with these cables, they totallt sound different in 50 hours.

did anyone expect a different result ??

They changed the definition of occ, in their minds they say occ means the purity of the copper only. I posted a question and got this answer from them.

I wonder if the "foil" C-shaped strands in the center are providing an air space? That may affect the way they work/sound?

Thank you for doing this video. I also have done a video on these cables and I am disappointed to find out they are not being honest about the use of OCC. In the interest of confirming this. I am willing to send one of my actual speaker cables for testing if you would be so kind to share how you went about getting your jumpers tested? Like you said they they may claim that their paperwork doesn't claim OCC copper on the jumpers. They may claim it was a mistake in the item title on Amazon. Reach out to me and let's put this to bed once and for all...cheers.

👍🏻

QUESTION FOR GUIDO: Even though these are not OCC, are these the best bang-for-the-buck speaker cables we can currently buy?

Thank you for this video and all your efforts... i purchased the 3m skw speaker cables, I am very pleased with the way my system sounds with kef metas, the sound is very very good for price point ..i won't be upgrading for few years. Its a shame SKW isn't honest in their advertising. ...let's also make a point that in todays market/world. Everyone is out to take your money and will bend truths to make it happen.

Bought once a solidly build HDMI cable. Clearly z chineese origin. It was heavy and had z 1cm diameter. Connector broke first time I tried to take it of from the socket :D it just stayed in and cable went out :) Build to look, not last ;)

I remember in a video you said that SKW “sounded like OCC copper.” So what does this mean? Does it kind of prove that there’s really no audible difference?

Try impeto cables out of Italy. OCC Different sound from SKW. More evident in mid and treble. Vocal clarity. SKW is more deep bass.

What I note here, based on what I see, that is more disturbing is that the c-section silver foils are placed in the centre of the braided copper cables conductor. The whole point of braiding the strands of copper is minimize the skin effect. To that end, the strands are interwoven. But here we see the opposite: the silver strands, which are the most expensive part, stay in the centre of the conductor throughout its length (unless the section shown was a mere coincidence which I am prepared to seriously doubt). All in all, that seems like a waste of material to me. I do not know whether it has an audible effect or not but I would be curious to find out how the same cable would perform if the silver strands were removed and replaced with equivalent copper strands or just not replaced with anything. I would be inclined to bet there will not be any perceptible difference but then again this is not an experiment I am prepared to pay for.

Grazie mille per i tuoi video. Avrei piacere di sentire cosa pensi dei cavi autocostruiti con cavo rame solidcore..... 😊

This is a great informational episode. You and the professor really opened my eyes to the word play Chinese audio companies use to hide the truth. Is Neotech really OCC? Better check them out too. Cheers

Are you going to review the new dirt tapes tape roller + ?

Now you should do with more very expensive cables brands :) cardas, siltech, AQ etc. Make them sweat!

How do one even measure the effect of placebo, let alone curing it???

Occ or ofc? Which is better, what's the difference?

Is the Lucid Aesir really UP-OCC Copper? I just bought the second 2m power cord and connected it two days ago. I think the cables are very good but it would be reassuring to know they are real. Thanks for your enlightenment!

People may not be aware that most Hi-Fi electronic equipment are manufactured with PCB which is at best equivalent to OFC. All the trace/copper foil/plated copper are made up of vertical columnar grain structure. These grain structures are in micron range size so for 10 inches of circuit trace there will be tens to hundreds millions of grains. This is why I am not sure the cable companies claim of OCC or continuous cast wire would make much difference!

If one knows how it works in China,he won't trust any test report.Because a company can send specific sample(which meet all the requirement)to get the report they want,then sell totally DIFFERENT cable on the market(And don't get me wrong,I just said some of them may do this).To audiophile,I think they shouldn't pay too much attention on that,C/P ratio and whether the cable really make your system sounds better is more important.

Really appreciated you research and your time to do this investigation. But at this point I am not sure if you ears think that good sound is the same as good sound it is for me. I would say that your system is way better than mine. I have bought the skw RCA’s and for me they sounded good, acceptable but nothing else than that. In comparison, other Chinese cables that I owned, are magical compared to skw, yes, MAGICAL is the word, yes more expensive but really from another planet sound.

thank you for this work! can you do the same check with "real" occ cable to see what happen there under the microscope?

I use cables that are OCC and OFC and to be completely honest I really don't notice a sound difference other than the OFC seems to be more flexible

Looks like the situation that happened to Mofi records: The issue lying not in the product itself, but in the (bad) advertising.

Hello there, i am a big fan of your channel and would like to ask you if at some point you could test and tell us more information about NRG Canadian made power - speaker and interconnect cables as i am very interested in purchasing for myself and have tried a large amount of different cables for my system. These are being built with scientific technology form what i have researched and i am always looking for sothing that can improve my system components. Thanking you Regards.

thank you !

I hope Ramm audio is occ cable