Twisting transformer wires?

[Dominick22]

I wanted to piggy back off of Ransom Peek becuase of Poobah's post about x-raying the magnetic fields in a twisted input cable.

Does the same apply for the transformer primary/secondaries.

I just twisted those wires in my current amp (for looks to be honest) but did not realize that it may have real impact in the design. Does it? Should those wires not be twisted or does it not matter here?

Thanks,
Dominick

[pwillard]

http://www.tnt-audio.com/clinica/ttse.html

I'm sure you could continue that thought... if you spend enough, it's bound to sound better.

[jleaman]

With ac wires it is a good idea to twist them. With dc i am not sure..

[poobah]

Twisting your primary wires is good... because it prevents a singular coherent field from radiating from the wires... same for the secondaries.

Twisting DC wires is good because it prevents a moving field from injecting something in.

All this twisting stuff really only works right when: The sum of all currents flowing in a group of twisted wires equals zero. That's a confusing way of saying; if there is 1 Amp going THIS WAY, there should be 1 Amp (the same amps BTW) going the OTHER WAY.

What about a center tapped secondary? If you are taking all three wires, center and legs, to the same location, just twist all three together. Also for this application you can use triaxial wire. Ping member jneutron for details... this is the hot setup.

If for some weird reason you are taking the each outer leg and a center tap to different locations, this can be confusing. So, as close to the trans as possible cut the center tap and splice on 2 wires. Twist one center tap lead with one outer leg, lather, rinse and repeat for the other side, and you're good.

[Dominick22]

Thanks a ton...I was fearing the need to undo my twisting/soldering!

Dominick

[poobah]

Keep in mind,

All this twisting stuff may or may not make a difference. It's not going to "open up your midrange" etc... It's all about keeping AC hum and other hash out of your signals.

The importance of this stuff increases as your signals decrease (or impedances increase)... so for things like phono & microphone signals... it becomes important... as does shielding.

Either way, harming something by twisting is next to impossible as long as you follow the sums of currents rule.

[jneutron]

Originally posted by poobah
What about a center tapped secondary? If you are taking all three wires, center and legs, to the same location, just twist all three together. Also for this application you can use triaxial wire. Ping member jneutron for details... this is the hot setup.

Hey there.

I'm still awaiting the results of my triaxial construct. I sent it to Peter Daniel, he got it May 9th.


It pays to twist all wires which carry current to and back from a block, as they will broadcast mag fields. For low Z circuits, this is far more important to watch out for than the E fields.

Cheers, John

[davidlzimmer]

Just please don't make it a tight twist. A nice easy twist will do what Poohbah and John mention.

[mrlots2do]

Originally posted by davidlzimmer
Just please don't make it a tight twist. A nice easy twist will do what Poohbah and John mention.

To late for my project but why not tight twist?

[sklimek]

I believe I remember a passage in the Jones book where he takes solid copper wire for the filaments and clamps one end of the the two wires in a vice and the other end of the two strands into the chuck of a drill and power on! Tight and clean, as it pulls its way toward the vice.

Maybe the key word here is filament wire, where it needs to be tight and tucked up along the outer perimeter of the chassis...