Internal wiring

[KenP]

What type of internal wire is everyone using to wire preamps and poweramps? Gauge, insulated or not, brand.

[jh6you]

I use tin-plated solid wires of 0.8mm or 1.0mm diameter, not insulated.

(1) http://www.jenving.se : The tin is of higher resistance than copper and also protects copper from bad sounding corrosion. It also minimizes the current jumps from wire to wire over corroded copper surfaces while more of the signal passes through the pure copper inside the wires. The tin layer also minimizes the skin-effect, by acting as a semi-Litz.
(2) No insulation because many people claim that any insulation material sucks.

JH

[Jeff R]

A lot of the decision depends upon the exact application. Low level input signals should be with shielded cable - maybe 20 - 24 AWG. Since the shield is grounded at one end, it probably doesn't matter if the cable is insulated or not.

High current output wiring needs to be a higher gauge, determined by what the peak output is. I would not use less than 14 AWG myself. I guess I would try to match whatever gauge wire my speaker cables used - though if you use some really low gauge cable that might not be too practical (i.e. it is difficult to solder 0 AWG wire to a transistor or PWB!).

Medium current interconnections might use something like 20 AWG hookup wire. Any wiring that is not ground should be insulated, IMHO. Teflon insulation is about the best, but good old PVC should work well, though it will melt back a little when the ends of the wires are soldered.

I would use a good quality stranded wire, such as silver plated copper, the more strands the better, but I really don't know if good old tinned wire would be any better or worse.

Jeff R.

[sam9]

Solid insulated tinned copper. I.e., common "hook-up" wire. Where there are paired signal wires, or even paired power wires, I twist them together.

[UrSv]

As of today I use 18 AWG (0.96 mm2) silver plated OFC with teflon insulation.

The reason for this is that it seems like a good idea to me and I doubt that I would hear the difference if going for something better. For now.

/UrSv

[JoeBob]

I use enamled solid copper wire, 14 and 16 AWG. Why? Because I had a few rolls lying around, sounds great to me, but then again I don't believe that the wire will change the sound (or at least to any extent which is measurable or that I can percieve).

[Peter Daniel]

A friengd of mine is using solid copper enameled wires for interconnects and he reports they sound great. His choice was 20AWG as sounding best for signals.

[KenP]

I've found a 300' roll of 18gauge 2 conductor wire at work. It's silver plated copper with a steel ground wire inside and it's also sheilded with a kind of silver foil. It say it's for telecommunications. Would this wire be ok?

[pinkmouse]

For signal, I use Van Damme balanced installation cable connected in a psuedo balanced manner

For mains, 2.5mm2 solid copper wire, power runs, the same or I have been experimenting with cat 5, which for low power amps can sound quite good.

For speaker outputs, cat5 again or Van Damme OFC pro.

[dlharmon]

16 awg teflon insulated silver plated copper. I got it cheap from http://www.apexjr.com. He may still have some. It is great to solder. The insulation will not even melt by directly touching it with a 45W iron, and the silver plating makes it really soak up the solder fast.

Darrell Harmon