Copperfoil speaker cables

[Pan]

Thought that I should report my latest fun with the "big-rig".

Uncoiled a "2mm square" (14AWG?) inductor and cut it in 1.2 meter lengths. Connected these bare/naked copper foil/ribbons to my speakers and experienced the best sounding cables so far in my book.

I have not done any A/B tests yet but will do soon.

Earlier I have tried Red Dawn, $1600 AudioQuests and several other cables, these are the best so far. They sound a little cleaner, more resolved than other cables I´ve tried. It´s like the high range is "cleaned up" and also the low level resolution seems to be better in the mids and high´s.

Must compare back and forth a couple of times with the old cables to make sure I´m not fooling myself . But there seems to be a not so small improvement.

It takes 10 minutes to make these cables and a coil is about $15!

My friend with the $1600 Audioquests did sound a little bit worried on the phone when I told him about this cheap, simple solution.

/Peter

[alvaius]

Great, now I have to go out and buy more Alpha-Core inductors. I hope you are happy!

Great and simple idea. I am going to have to try it. What did you do so seperate the conductors? I was thinking that double sided foam tape may be interesting. That would provide some separation, give it some mechanical stability, etc. If the runs were short, the capacitance should not be too bad.... will need to work that out. I have a thought for the overall coating, rubberized roofing paint.....

What guage of coil did you use?

Alvaius

[Pan]

I use the + and - runs separated from eachother by about 8" or so. Also use no insulation to avoid any energy storage of the cable.

It´s as simple and pure as it gets and it sounds like that also.

It woul be interesting to try my solution with the one you mention, but I´m afraid that double sided tape may affect the sound??? Also having the conductors separated means no mechanical interference or resonances can occur, this is part of the idea.

Maybe for long runs (5-10 meter) it can be wise to use the Goertz type of cable (to lower the inductance), but for short runs (less than 2 meter) and if the impedance is 8 ohm or more in the high range of the speaker, separated runs makes a whooole lot of sense to me.

Next for me is to try silver foils, at least to the tweeter. Cotton insulation and spades/bananas can be usefull for some people also.

I use 14AWG I think (2mm2). The foil is 1.2" wide and THIN. I think for runs of 1 meter one could get by without any problems with 16AWG. With lengths more than four meters or so, 12AWG would be the choice. Of course speaker impedance affects the whole equation.

Oh... yes I´m happy

/Peter

[fdegrove]

Hello,

Next for me is to try silver foils, at least to the tweeter. Cotton insulation and spades/bananas can be usefull for some people also.

Go silverfoil all the way.
Even if you're bi-wiring...it pays big time.
You're in for a nice surprise.

If later on you want to experiment further with interconnects use teflon tubing as a carrier (choose diameter 3 to 3.5 mm),wrap the silverfoil carefully around it,use some plumber teflon tape to insulate that and insert it in a braided shielding sheet covered with nylon braid.

Connect your plugs and you have a silverfoil hollow connection.

Enjoy the sound,

[Pan]

Are you suggesting that even if I only use 1 meter of silver foil from amp the speaker it will be better than copper?

Don´t forget the signal (to the mids) will have to pass 10-20 meter or so of copper foil in the X-over, and then there is the VC´s copper winding in the drivers...!

/Peter

[fdegrove]

Hi,

Don´t forget the signal (to the mids) will have to pass 10-20 meter or so of copper foil in the X-over, and then there is the VC´s copper winding in the drivers...!

Tell me if you don't.

I know what you mean,it would be great to use silverfoil inductors as well naturally... and silver inside the speaker coils.

All will make a small but worthwhile difference.

Try it if you can...I had my woofers and mids redone that way for free as a sponsored experiment and don't regret it one bit.

Cheers,

[Test Pilot]

Foil makes good conductors but cables are a different game.
Try thick, massive copper or silver, keep the signal-halves separated and listen to clean sound!

[capslock]

Have you tried to calculate inductance? Having the runs separated by 8 inches constitutes a signifcant loop area.

[Pan]

"Foil makes good conductors but cables are a different game.
Try thick, massive copper or silver, keep the signal-halves separated and listen to clean sound!"

Test Pilot,

I don´t get your point, what do you mean with this?
Are you suggesting that a round solid core would have better properties as a speakercable than a 30mm wide and 0.067mm thin foil/ribbon?

Capslock,

I have not calculated or measured the RCL of the cable, but will measure soon. Flat conductors inherently has less inductance then round of the same gauge. Also I have lengths of about 1 meter. I do not hear any roll off in the top compared to the low inductance SupraPly cable, only cleaner more resolved sound.

I will measure inductance and calculate eventual roll off sometime this month.

/Peter

[capslock]

Inductance is a function of the loop area. If the separation between the runs becomes much larger than the width of each conductor, the shape of the wire or foil becomes completely irrelevant.