I know the internet is not to be trusted sometimes but when all 20 of the first search results agree that pure silver is more conductive than pure copper it’s kindly hard not to believe......do you have any links to verify the above?
Hmm... you may be right.
I'll look into my hard disk as i got this info in my former job and i most probably saved this.
Edit: Ok one link about oxidizing which goes in my direction:
Are silver and copper metals easily oxidized? - Quora
This was the same question i had ( why in electronic switch silver is used for contact) so i may have the same kind of answers from my archive...
Will take a look nevertheless.
I'll look into my hard disk as i got this info in my former job and i most probably saved this.
Edit: Ok one link about oxidizing which goes in my direction:
Are silver and copper metals easily oxidized? - Quora
This was the same question i had ( why in electronic switch silver is used for contact) so i may have the same kind of answers from my archive...
Will take a look nevertheless.
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^ not expert or engineer in this field too so i may well be wrong.
So far no luck but i've only scanned 1/5 of HDD...
So far no luck but i've only scanned 1/5 of HDD...
See:
Table of Resistivity
Pure copper is indeed about 6% down on silver in terms of relative conductivity. In practical terms, very little in it. Silver oxide has relatively good conductivity, unlike copper oxide. However, silver sulfide (tarnish) has reduced conductivity.
Table of Resistivity
Pure copper is indeed about 6% down on silver in terms of relative conductivity. In practical terms, very little in it. Silver oxide has relatively good conductivity, unlike copper oxide. However, silver sulfide (tarnish) has reduced conductivity.
On that subject, look at this wire offered by Madisound. It uses Tin; which can oxidize (rust) but it seems to add something to improved sound quality for my Fostex T90A super tweeters. Keep in mind my hearing above 15 KHz drops like a rock at my age but I did an A/B with just regular zip cord and this stuff had more definition that the zip cord.
Supra CLASSIC-2.5 Speaker Wire per foot (13 AWG)
They are using very pure Copper here as well so that obviously helps as well.
So, here we go again, open up another can of worms on metals and how they affect "sound"...
Back to capacitors; has anyone tried the Teflon caps? Some say they are the best!? Would we think copper foil caps with Teflon to be the ultimate???
Supra CLASSIC-2.5 Speaker Wire per foot (13 AWG)
They are using very pure Copper here as well so that obviously helps as well.
So, here we go again, open up another can of worms on metals and how they affect "sound"...
Back to capacitors; has anyone tried the Teflon caps? Some say they are the best!? Would we think copper foil caps with Teflon to be the ultimate???
Hey, that keeps it interesting! I seem to remember the better relays and switches use silver on the contacts; maybe it takes longer to oxidize??? I know in the past anyway, many higher quality test equipment circuit boards had gold traces or at least gold on copper. If you want to keep conductors more pure; wear nitrile or other gloves when stripping off the insulation and don't touch the copper with bare fingers. You can also use solder with 2% silver and hope the oxidation never develops at all.
Well i havent find anything relevant from HDD.
Scottmoose gave the answer imho.
Thank you Mountainman Bob, this is nice to have things you thought acquired to be challenged.
Oldspeakerguy, i do what you say when playing with microphone capsules (there is impedance this high than fingerprints/fat may filter out low end). From this i took one more habits when soldering: clean everything with alcool once done. Nice to look at and better for the circuit overall ( if it help with high impedance it won't do bad with lower one).
Scottmoose gave the answer imho.
Thank you Mountainman Bob, this is nice to have things you thought acquired to be challenged.
Oldspeakerguy, i do what you say when playing with microphone capsules (there is impedance this high than fingerprints/fat may filter out low end). From this i took one more habits when soldering: clean everything with alcool once done. Nice to look at and better for the circuit overall ( if it help with high impedance it won't do bad with lower one).
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A couple of general factual points FWIW:
-CCAW wire has significantly higher resistance than copper of any kind for a given gauge. Not exactly news, so unless you require some series R in the circuit, gauge for gauge copper or silver will have less in the way of voltage drop & also less impact on system alignment (since series R will artificially raise the Q of the drive units, potentially altering bass etc. alignments).
-Tin does not really oxidise at room temperatures so it is typically used as a plating to prevent oxidation of other (core) metals e.g. copper.
-CCAW wire has significantly higher resistance than copper of any kind for a given gauge. Not exactly news, so unless you require some series R in the circuit, gauge for gauge copper or silver will have less in the way of voltage drop & also less impact on system alignment (since series R will artificially raise the Q of the drive units, potentially altering bass etc. alignments).
-Tin does not really oxidise at room temperatures so it is typically used as a plating to prevent oxidation of other (core) metals e.g. copper.
Yah, I bought the CCA wire by accident (I was in a hurry at the hardware store) although I thought it was a little light I didn’t figure it out until after I started stripping it, by then I figured what the heck might as well....and then after hearing what it did to the sound I couldn’t get rid of it fast enough.
We use tin coated copper wire on the boats but have never tried it for home speaker wire.
We use tin coated copper wire on the boats but have never tried it for home speaker wire.
It's a fine-strand litz wire (of good quality) - which tends to sound best with higher freq. drivers. Note: gauge also factors-in, and I often prefer a smaller gauge wire despite the very small increase in resistance (over such a short run of crossover to tweeter). Typically the ductility of the metal (copper vs. silver) is more important than choosing either specific metal (..so if DIY'ing it: look for "Dead Soft" wire with good purity).
I even prefer litz air-core inductors for the tweeter high-pass of the crossover.
On the other hand I usually prefer solid-core for the midrange and bass (larger gauge is important in the bass), IF you can get a good connection. (..and that's one area litz wire often has an advantage - especially for crimp compression connections.)
TonyG has reviewed the Cu-foil Teflon caps. Really to expensive for anything but a bypass position for most builds. Where this cap really "shines" is with signal DC blocking for transformers (aka "parafeed"), though still terribly expensive.
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Thanks for the info! I also use Hepa-Litz inductors on the shunt for 2nd order HP on my higher quality tweeters. My Fostex T90A has two Mundorf Silver/Oil capacitors in parallel each plus a CDE 940C bypass. I found I prefer the Goertz flat foil inductors (14 or even 12 AWG) for LP on mids and I use Jantzen P-core 13 AWG or C-Coil 14 AWG for woofer LP. Not in every case but I get the best results this way. The Teflons ARE way too expensive unless I ever go very high end! On a recent experimental budget 5 inch 2-way I used Superior Z + Audyn Plus (double layer) + CDE 940C. I compared it directly to an Alumen Z and Audyn copper foil cap. My combination was as good if not better than the other much more expensive caps.
As a brief note, Supra Classic is not litz wire. Litz wire employs individually insulated strands. Supra Classic is a tin-plated OFC multistrand. As it happens I run Classic 4.0 myself -I was given 10m from the end of a roll & it was less obtrusive than the equivalent-gauge studio wire I was running prior to that.
Scottmoose; do you think I would gain more detail switching from 10 AWG OFC fine strand to all SUPRA? I have the SUPRA on my ST and upper mids only, lower mids, upper and lower woofers all use the 10 AWG; subs use 8 AWG regular stranded copper.
Thanks!
Thanks!
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