A New Interconnect Design

[analog_sa]

Originally Posted by janneman

Similarly to your idea but of course not symmetrical and the 1.2V battery certainly allowed for signal zero-crossing at high levels.

Very unlikely that design used the 1.2v directly. It was probably boosted to 36-72v inside that box.

[beau2317]

Teflon, like everything, has a place on the trioboelectric series. Nothing is highly (or even HIGHLY) trioboelectric. It's the difference between the two materials in contact that matter.

So, teflon and silver produce a trioboelectric effect. So do just about any metal and any insulator. Take copper. That is further away from teflon on the trioboelectric series, so copper/teflon should show more trioboelectric effect than silver/teflon. Similarly, common insulators like polypropylene, PVC and polyethylene are also quite close to teflon on the series.

So it seems to me that every interconnect that employs some kind of plastic and some kind of metal will show the effect you are talking about, to some extent or other. Certainly the looser the construction the more the effect is likely to be. Whether it's actually audible is another question.

Perhaps you can link to the anecdote that you posted previously?

[SY]

Favorite speaker wire?

[kboe]

Hey everyone!

I'm the "someone he knows" who will be posting a full review in a few days, maybe as early as tomorrow.

Bob, would you like me to create a new thread for the review, or post it in this thread?

Till then,
Kevin

[beau2317]

SY : OK - the wire in question was microphonic. But it seems to me that you jumped to the conclusion that it was the Triboelectric effect that was causing this. How do you know that it was this effect and not some other effect?

I have just performed a small experiment : I connected my interconnect to a high gain input on my preamp, much higher than my normal line level inputs. Cranked the volume up to 11 and then tried tapping the interconnect. Actually more like whacking it with a screwdriver.

Result : no detectable microphony. No sound at all noticable through the speaker.

And this is with something like 200 times more gain that I would use for normal "loud" listening. And stimulating the cable with much larger vibrations that loud music would produce.

[beau2317]

Kevin : you can post it in this thread, thanks.

[SY]

That's a good experiment. Try it again with some signal going through it. If all looks OK, you're golden.

[beau2317]

That's a good experiment. Try it again with some signal going through it. If all looks OK, you're golden.

Well I would maybe blow my speakers or at least annoy my neighbors and wife if I used full volume through high gain input.

I can't see how this experiment would work at all. If I use lower gain then it's not likely to show when the music is playing. Just like you don't test for microphonic tubes with music playing, right? You turn up the volume with no music and tap the tubes.

I can do this to humor you, but I can't see the point. Hold on...I will do it now...

[SY]

Nothing fancy, just play a tone through it and tap. If you hear the tone modulate, you need to tighten things up. If not, you're fine.

[janneman]

Originally Posted by analog_sa

Very unlikely that design used the 1.2v directly. It was probably boosted to 36-72v inside that box.

No, I'm quite sure. Just 1.2V.

jan didden