silver coated military grade for speaker wire

[ginsner]

I was looking for some spools of speaker wire at one of the surplus stores the other day and the owner showed me some military grade 16g wire that comes as 4 marked twisted strands he had for 25c a foot, and apperently it is silver coated copper.
I am thinking this would make damn nice speaker wire especially if you were bi-amping
anybody have any ideas on this?

[john curl]

Seems like a bargain, but you have to try it to know for sure. The silver coating is usually put there to prevent copper oxidation when applying the insulating coating that is usually a high temperature type (being military and all), and not necessarily for signal quality. Quite often, this silver coating is plated on and it has a lot of residual impurities. We have found that many examples of this wire can sound bright or edgy. Still, why not try it and see?

[KBK]

John

I believe it has to be electroplated and done when the coppr has been fully smoothed to perfection in terms of diamater accuracy arcoss the length, and chemical prepped/washed ..THEN 'high purity silver' electroplated or dipped (I can't remember exactly which one it is!) wire works and works VERY well. But the give-a-way crap on ebay is just that.... crap.

The only way to buy the good stuff, is to make calls to each individual company who may make a given wire, and see how the silver plating is done, and at what purity.

We are throwing the entire baby out with all the bathwater on this one, it is likely SOME, a miniscule amount of that ebay silver/copper wire is PHENOMENAL....the trick -- is knowing which one.

That requires effort.

It's easy to figure out which one it is. The manufacturers who charge 3x as much as the next guy, for seemingly the same product..that's the one you are looking for. Find out who manufuactures like that, then you can get the best stuff around on ebay, and no-one will be the wiser. Your own private stash of the good stuff.

[ginsner]

i guess i can afford the 2 bucks it would cost for the 8 feet i would need as it isnt braided and that would give me 4 8 foot wires

[john curl]

I should hope that you can afford it. Please don't look at any of the wires that I normally use.

[Apex Jr]

If it is Mil-Spec wire the spool should be marked by a mil #
M16878/4 standard wall 600V
M16878/5 Thick Wall 1000V
M16878/6 Thin Wall 250V
All at 200 degrees C
Also might be marked M22759/11 newer mil #
The price is a great price since I charge .23ft per foot just for
a single conductor and it's a great price from regular retail.
There's a lot of info on the net once you have the mil #'s

Steve @ Apex Jr.

[ginsner]

didn't look at the spool for #'s though
and i was off on a couple things
1. its 5 conductors twisted together
2. its 20g not 16
i had just looked briefly the first time
the only markings are the bands identifying each strand as it is all black on blue. i will give it a shot later today to see what it is like

i also got a chance to look around at more of the stuff they have and it seems like a diyers paradise. all sorts of salvaged electronics, power supplies and what not

He also gave me a number for a guy in town who apperently has a stockpile of tubes, i guess he was a tech at the radio station. that could be usefull if i get into this diy stereo thing a little heavier.

[I_Forgot]

Originally posted by KBK

It's easy to figure out which one it is. The manufacturers who charge 3x as much as the next guy, for seemingly the same product..that's the one you are looking for. Find out who manufuactures like that, then you can get the best stuff around on ebay, and no-one will be the wiser. Your own private stash of the good stuff.

I'll be happy to sell you some stuff I got on ebay for 3X what I paid if it will make you feel better- I mean if it will make it sound better.

I_F

[FastEddy]

KBK: " ... 'high purity silver' electroplated or dipped (I can't remember exactly which one it is!) wire works and works VERY well. ..."

I would guess that "dipped" stranded would be way too costly for a wire mill to manufacture. One would think the electroplateing would give the manufacturer much better costs control as "dipping" into a silver bath would consume much more silver per meter ... Yes?

[KBK]

I would suspect that, yes. I cannot for the life of me remember which is the correct one, but believe it is the dip type that is the one that 'works' for audio use.

This is a 15 year old memory from a discussion on the old BBS system from the "alt.audio.highend" group.

The explaination was seemingly valid, according to what was suspected of wire response considering maxwell, skin effect, etc. The answer was well spoken. It's just a vauge memory now.