Wonder if it is possible to use ordinary silver wire that the goldsmiths use as a hook up wire?😕
The price is really good if you buy it for jewelry work so that is why I'm asking. If it work then you only have to get PTFE tubing and start installing.😀😀
Silver 925 (92.5% silver) 0.5 mm (about AWG 24) cost appr. $ 4.10 per meter
Silver 999 (99.9% silver) 0,3 mm (about AWG 28) cost appr. $ 31 per 25 meters
The price is really good if you buy it for jewelry work so that is why I'm asking. If it work then you only have to get PTFE tubing and start installing.😀😀
Silver 925 (92.5% silver) 0.5 mm (about AWG 24) cost appr. $ 4.10 per meter
Silver 999 (99.9% silver) 0,3 mm (about AWG 28) cost appr. $ 31 per 25 meters
You can totally use it as wire, you can use steel wire if you want too, works fine.
Why would you want to use silver as wiring though?
why? why not?
In some, not all applications, silver handle signals better than copper, specially high frequencies (I have heard).
Want to try the concept!
In some, not all applications, silver handle signals better than copper, specially high frequencies (I have heard).
Want to try the concept!
If you're doing VHF radio stuff then yes, silver has some uses over copper.
Though you can totally go for silver, it is about 5% more conductive than copper.
Go ahead and use it if you want, because why not, if you got money to spend it makes good wiring.
Any conductor which is sufficiently mechancially strong and also, in many cases, solderable makes good wiring. Unless you can hear up to 200MHz there is no electrical requirement for silver for audio.
I understand PTFE and silver make a particularly bad combination, which may be why they are so popular among 'audiophiles'?
I understand PTFE and silver make a particularly bad combination, which may be why they are so popular among 'audiophiles'?
I have found this is be a nasty sounding combination.
OP - Try both types of silver available, there may be a difference.
Keep wire directions consistent to avoid introducing extra possible variable.
Dan.
The Jewelry silver i tried (99.99) sounded worse than copper.
Just get proper soft silver if you want good sound.
Just get proper soft silver if you want good sound.
Copper and silver handle signals equally well, given that the copper wire is one AWG number larger, because silver has a tad less resistance if the wire is the same size.
IOW, 12 gauge copper wire handles signals as well as 13 gauge silver wire.
Buying bare silver wire burdens you with the problem of insulating it for most applications.
Given that it likely that any sonic comparisons between the two will be done very crudely and unscientifically, randomness and personal bias will strongly influence their outcomes.
There are far more productive concepts to test, such as those related to speaker selection and placement as well as room acoustics.
I do like that, in parenthesis. An excellent way of explaining it makes no damn difference! 😎
I use 999 silver wire in PTFE tubing.
It's a pita to braid but I like how it sounds.
When it comes to wiring, it's like much else in life. To each their own.
I had a voltage divider in the signal path between tube stages, a pair of 470k resistors. I found the reduced electron friction of the silver wire connecting the two was an improvement...
How does one define the direction of a wire?Max Headroom said:
Provided the only issue is cosmetics, then yes you can wire with whatever you like.Mayday said:
Reduced Electron Friction? Electrons flow at 299,792,458 m / s regardless of material. Silver has a slightly lower resistance and one may use a thinner gauge than copper.
Copper will conduct 58.5 Siemens/m X 10.E6
Silver 62.1 Siemens/m x 10.E6
Gold on the other hand is worse than copper at 44.2 Siemens/m, its only saving grace is it doesn't tarnish like silver or copper.
That is the science of the matter. The rest is all in the mind.
Copper will conduct 58.5 Siemens/m X 10.E6
Silver 62.1 Siemens/m x 10.E6
Gold on the other hand is worse than copper at 44.2 Siemens/m, its only saving grace is it doesn't tarnish like silver or copper.
That is the science of the matter. The rest is all in the mind.
Jon, it was a joke. I was pointing out that the wire resistance connecting two half meg resistors together was unlikely to contribute much change. A fraction of an ohm compared to 470,000 of them.
When I read headroom's comment about wire direction, I assumed that was also meant as a joke. I could be wrong.
Without getting all existential, I think arguments have been made that CURRENT flows through a wire at the speed of light, while the electrons themselves travel much more slowly. Like those desk toys with a row of steel balls that clack back and forth. The movement signal runs through the row of balls apparently instantly, while the balls themselves don't hardly move at all. The electron going into one end of the wire is not coming out the other, only the current does that. That is the argument stated, I am not trying to start that discussion here.
When I read headroom's comment about wire direction, I assumed that was also meant as a joke. I could be wrong.
Without getting all existential, I think arguments have been made that CURRENT flows through a wire at the speed of light, while the electrons themselves travel much more slowly. Like those desk toys with a row of steel balls that clack back and forth. The movement signal runs through the row of balls apparently instantly, while the balls themselves don't hardly move at all. The electron going into one end of the wire is not coming out the other, only the current does that. That is the argument stated, I am not trying to start that discussion here.
Please give me the name and location of whoever taught you physics in school. I need to punch his lights out for child abuse.
Nope.
Electrical waves move through conductors at speeds that are usually well shy of the speed of light. For example the velocity of propagation for some coax is 0.6 the speed of light. Always less, but how much less varies but can be very significant.
Furthermore the charge carriers (in most cases electrons) move far, far slower.
For example google says:
"For a 12-gauge copper wire carrying a 10-ampere DC current, the speed of electric current (average electron drift velocity) is about 80 centimeters per hour or about 0.0002 meters per second."
Of course, this factoid makes an even bigger joke out of the thought of significant audible effects due to reduced Electron Friction.
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Wire sounding this, silver sounding that...
Electrical properties that effects sound is more due to the physical design, capacitance in this case since you are transferring a voltage signal. Usually you have 47kOhms as input impedance or even 100kOhm, so the current is very small 500nA. Resistance is also of minor interest, conductiveness of silver and copper makes no difference at all in that respect.
But if you would find a recording with silver in all harness altoghether it would be nice to have silver in the hifi system as well! And a silver foil hat...
Electrical properties that effects sound is more due to the physical design, capacitance in this case since you are transferring a voltage signal. Usually you have 47kOhms as input impedance or even 100kOhm, so the current is very small 500nA. Resistance is also of minor interest, conductiveness of silver and copper makes no difference at all in that respect.
But if you would find a recording with silver in all harness altoghether it would be nice to have silver in the hifi system as well! And a silver foil hat...
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