dfidler,
There is more to this than meets the eye.
The conductor material can be anything.
Could it be carbon like a spark plug lead?
The dielectric can be anything even fibergass circuit board.
The construction can be done many ways.
The question is:
How will the conductor perform with a given load, construction and dielectric.
What effect does stranded make, opposed to single core, or plating of the conductor IMO quite a difference.
Many will argue skin effect is not relevant at audio frequencies, however make some interconnects take a listen then cover with wax listen again, let it corrode listen again. This is the surface of the material so it should not make a difference. It does!
The dielectric is very important. Silver cable with polyester dielectric sounds rather poor. You don't have to spend a fortune...
I am not going into this > welding, brazing, soldering etc.
The effect of RFI and interferance from magnetic induction linked to construction.
IMO <everyones got one.
Silver plated copper PTFE dielectric. Or silver with PTFE or cotton with oil (used to stop it sounding sterile) as suggested. I hate using audiophile terms, however.
Silver can sound "thin" perhaps this is lack of colouration.
I made some interconnects with gold IMO they sounded dull and the treble seemed to roll off, great for protection of the surface....as long as its not the outer conductor.
Silver sounds different as the outer goes dull with age..etc <sounds better IMO YMMV.
It sounds like burn in because it gets mellow clean it off and.. treble in your face again.
Mixing strands of materials etc...you can go on for ever!
Just materials...so construction + dielectric is as important, maybe even more so! Twisted pair can often be better than screened.
Sorry..going on..lol..no futher comment! 🙂
Regards
M. Gregg
There is more to this than meets the eye.
The conductor material can be anything.
Could it be carbon like a spark plug lead?
The dielectric can be anything even fibergass circuit board.
The construction can be done many ways.
The question is:
How will the conductor perform with a given load, construction and dielectric.
What effect does stranded make, opposed to single core, or plating of the conductor IMO quite a difference.
Many will argue skin effect is not relevant at audio frequencies, however make some interconnects take a listen then cover with wax listen again, let it corrode listen again. This is the surface of the material so it should not make a difference. It does!
The dielectric is very important. Silver cable with polyester dielectric sounds rather poor. You don't have to spend a fortune...
I am not going into this > welding, brazing, soldering etc.
The effect of RFI and interferance from magnetic induction linked to construction.
IMO <everyones got one.
Silver plated copper PTFE dielectric. Or silver with PTFE or cotton with oil (used to stop it sounding sterile) as suggested. I hate using audiophile terms, however.
Silver can sound "thin" perhaps this is lack of colouration.
I made some interconnects with gold IMO they sounded dull and the treble seemed to roll off, great for protection of the surface....as long as its not the outer conductor.
Silver sounds different as the outer goes dull with age..etc <sounds better IMO YMMV.
It sounds like burn in because it gets mellow clean it off and.. treble in your face again.
Mixing strands of materials etc...you can go on for ever!
Just materials...so construction + dielectric is as important, maybe even more so! Twisted pair can often be better than screened.
Sorry..going on..lol..no futher comment! 🙂
Regards
M. Gregg
Hoe does covering an interconnect with wax have anything to do with skin effect, all you are doing is adding a dielectric to a bare wire!!! 0.5mm at 20kHz
How does stranded sound different to single core, what are the mechanisms involved.
As the energy is in the field sourounding the wire, how does the material of the wire effect the field and cause variations in the sound.
Why is there no empirical measured data regarding these huge differences in materials, in regards to the conduction of signals.
Even the effect of dielectrics is minimal at the frequencies we are dealing with and have seen no difference between stranded, solid core with a range of dielectrics.
How does stranded sound different to single core, what are the mechanisms involved.
As the energy is in the field sourounding the wire, how does the material of the wire effect the field and cause variations in the sound.
Why is there no empirical measured data regarding these huge differences in materials, in regards to the conduction of signals.
Even the effect of dielectrics is minimal at the frequencies we are dealing with and have seen no difference between stranded, solid core with a range of dielectrics.
Marce,
Just for interest and also off topic, Its been posted before:
Electra-Print.com Partial Silver Stranded Secondary Transformers
http://www.ultimateavmag.com/content/great-audio-cable-debate <<<<page 1 cables should have been this link
The Great Audio Cable Debate Page 2 | Ultimateavmag.com<<<<page 2
This is about materials ..this has been discussed so much and each person has their own ideas about what works and what is snake oil etc.
I guess each to their own. 🙂
Regards
M. Gregg
Just for interest and also off topic, Its been posted before:
Electra-Print.com Partial Silver Stranded Secondary Transformers
http://www.ultimateavmag.com/content/great-audio-cable-debate <<<<page 1 cables should have been this link
The Great Audio Cable Debate Page 2 | Ultimateavmag.com<<<<page 2
This is about materials ..this has been discussed so much and each person has their own ideas about what works and what is snake oil etc.
I guess each to their own. 🙂
Regards
M. Gregg
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In the end, such exotic cables probably do make a difference in the sound. Low makes a good point about the effect of all audio components, including cable. "The only way to get good sound is by not damaging whatever you started with. Every piece of equipment puts out a signal that's distorted compared to the input. Better equipment causes less damage to the signal. The process is like a descending staircase. Every piece of equipment, including the cable, is like a step, taking its toll on the sound. If you replace any step with one that doesn't descend as far, the entire staircase doesn't descend as far, and you have a better sound.[/B]
right... with hogwash like this, is it any wonder the debate "rages on"??? Classic urbanmythology mommy-science at its best...
right... with hogwash like this, is it any wonder the debate "rages on"??? Classic urbanmythology mommy-science at its best...
Buying a special component or wire is only worthwhile if you can hear the difference and that difference is an improvement.
Keeping in line with the OP, the cetter the conductor the less the DC resistance and the more power you can pass, but with audio it is a little more complex than that. I suggest You read Nelson Pass's article on his website and you'll see that you can spend a lot on cables but the result you get is also dependent on other parts of your system.
Pass Labs: Technical articles
Pass Labs: Technical articles
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