silver wire/parts for audio

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Hi.I want to learn that what is the difference between pure silver wire and pure audio silver wire?why some silver wires are so expensive?Are not they same material?Can i make a silver wire as good as Jensen silver wire?In my country silver seems cheaper than other countries.It is about 1$/gramme.My friend told me that you can buy silver wire from silver seller and make audio cable.So it is much cheaper from other audio stores.Maybe i can make and sell them?
I am so sorry that i do not know much about silver wires.But i want to learn.Thank you
 
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Be careful with silver. It's very easy to palm off 3N silver as 4N, and so on. Silver used in Jewelry is of unknown quality, so unless you have a known source of 4N silver, the raw material itself is a question mark. Then comes the drawing process. In my country silver is cheap but so is labour, so wire is drawn by hand. When measured with a caliper, there is minor difference in thickness along the length, so commercially I don't know if it will sell.

The good news however, is that it works well for your personal use. I use a local jeweller and he makes me 4N silver or a mix of 3N Ag and some Cu (exact proportion is a work in progress) for interconnects. They are sonically superb, with the silver easily matching the imported, 'properly drawn' Cardas silver wire.

A set of 4 wires for a single pair of interconnects works out to under $10 including smith charges, and I use the very nice and cheap Switchcraft $3 RCA plugs (for snobs, those are also used on the Shindo silver interconnects). For around $30, you can beat high-dollar interconnects pretty handily.
 
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Well, you can use anything you want, but Ken Shindo thinks they're good enough for a $1000 interconnect. I don't know, but I have had a hard time finding anything at that price that is not made of brass. The 3502A uses copper on both sides of the contact, which is a rarity.
 
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Dunno about the gold plated ones, but the nickel plated (which I use) are on Digikey at $2.59, though the short body (older) version is in the pictures. The 3502A has been updated and unless D-K's stock is Neanderthal, you should get the newer ones. I'm not really sure what the internal differences are, but the barrel is longer in the new ones.

The long body ones are here much cheaper, but I don't know if they'll ship outside US: Audiogear.com. The same site has a bunch of different 3502s, including the ones with black barrel and gold plate, as well as Neutriks :)

This is a very common and cheap part, should be available from many sources, the MSRP is $2.99. The $6 offers are for people who don't know better.
 
umut1001, the differences in price originate not only from the difference in the raw material, but also from the treatment it has undergone. For example hard silver is useless for audio, it has to be soft annealed. Also, some people believe further improvements can be made by careful polishing of the wire, or cryogenic treatment. Also, in case of Duelund wire, it's the unusual shape (rectangular cross-section) that you pay for - apparently, it has been found to be the optimal conductor shape.

So the price of Jensen wire you mentioned is not really the price of silver itself, it's the price you pay to be assured that your wire has been made and handled with audio signals in mind...
 
Can someone recomend what would be the best material for low loss signal for diy RCA Connector?

How about differential thickness of the plating on the rca?

Am also wandering about this high price high end product in the market will sounded like on RCA connectors and on AC Power cord i.e. palladium, rhodioum, red copper, gold and silver.

Would be very happy anyone can share this experience or formula for our better understanding. Tq.
 
For better understanding Google skin effect. The formula you find will show you that silver plating has no effect at audio frequencies. Gold plating on a connector, if thick enough not to wipe off on first use, can help maintain low contact resistance. For wire the best compromise for flexibility and conductance is copper. Astonishingly, that is why we use copper wires.
 
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