Does silver used in interconnects "sound" different than copper?

[sq225917]

The UK mains overhead wires are aluminium with a steel core for strength.

The screen calibration tool only tries to best match colour balance, gamma and contrast, it has no effect on the response time of the pixels, or how they are processed for motion or how the cover element reacts with ambient light and viewing angle.

Two colour calibrated screens can look completely different.

 

[mhardy6647]

maybe aluminum formers but I think the windings are copper

Could be but aluminum has been used for VCs in some pretty reputable drivers over the decades.

Here's a not entirely randomly chosen example -- the venerable (and still much sought-after) JBL 2440 compression driver:

source: https://jblpro.com/en/site_elements/2440-information (N.B. link is a self-downloading PDF from JBL)

Brass has been used as well, but - arguably - in somewhat déclassé drivers.
Radio Shack's Optimus 1 fairly leaps to mind.

source: https://www.radioshackcatalogs.com/flipbook/1972_radioshack_catalog_ver1.html

 

[DonH56]

When I think of brass the trumpet fits right in; voice coils, not so much.

 

[Mnyb]

maybe aluminum formers but I think the windings are copper

Both i suppose read some material from them that they actually do use aluminum wire in the coils of some drivers. Hard to find pictures of it , looks copper clad to me . These aluminum coil things are in different marketing material from them .

Aluminium seems to be prefered when conductivity vs total weight is a factor

 

[Helicopter]

Both i suppose read some material from them that they actually do use aluminum wire in the coils of some drivers. Hard to find pictures of it , looks copper clad to me . These aluminum coil things are in different marketing material from them .

Aluminium seems to be prefered when conductivity vs total weight is a factor

In power lines, strength compared to weight and conductivity are also considered. A stronger wire needs less wire to support it. Long power line runs are heavy, and sometimes they have to support the weight of a layer of ice.

 

[Mnyb]

In power lines, strength compared to weight and conductivity are also considered. A stronger wire needs less wire to support it. Long power line runs are heavy, and sometimes they have to support the weight of a layer of ice.

Yes they also have steel cores for this reason or/and the aluminum could be an alloy . As far as i can remember from my youth when i worked on power lines .

I would like to try implosive splicing on speaker cables

 

[solderdude]

CCAW is often used in headphones. CCAW main advantage is lower weight yet easy to solder. You would have to cut the wire in order to distinquish it from regular copper wire.

 

[kristiansen]

"Sound signature" change requires that the signal has actually changed, otherwise it is not real, by sheer definition. And any signal change like that can be measured in subtractive testing, as explained many times. I now can measure differences way way below any possible human hearing threshold: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...dible-with-music-signals-some-examples.20886/
Note that different cables (though same plain old stranded copper wire construction but extremely different lengths) were measured also and actually gave a (ultra-microscopic) difference that can be listened to (well, nothing but noise, no "signature" found). I might repeat this with different material cables, does solder wire count as supposedly different than copper?

And finally, do you have the balls to take part in a blind test? You managed to miss the first one even though I pointed to you to here, where people not only could not detect the different cables, they also did not catch the in-built control which was the original file!

Yes I know it is as you say, it is the mystery for me and many others.

Ethan Winers null test ,There was no electrical signal difference between the two cables.

When I insist that there are sound differences it is because I have participated in several shootout blind tests and more traditional blind tests.
Which has shown that there are sound differences and sound differences basically follow the price tag the cheapest cables were the worst and the expensive the best.
Identical with a non-blind test where the argument is that the appearance and price determines whether the cable is good or bad, also called placebo

I see no reason to participate in your test if it is not live, I have participated in some tests of that type and like everyone else I have not been able to hear the sound difference for sure. I do not hear better than others, I am not and do not look like

I do not know why recording audio differences does not work in the same way and just as well as switching a cable live in the hi-fi chain itself.

The sound differences are not small live , everyone will be able to hear the difference between the cheapest and most expensive cable on a transparent system that does not have a ported speaker and is not raised 10-15 db in the bass.

The sound differences that are heard with long cables are due to the parasitic component becoming active and affecting e.g. Frequency response phase which makes the sound more woolly and blurry, something completely different from the sound differences/sound signature I am talking about. Which has more to do with timbre combined with resolution and perspective /sound Imaging/sound stage.
But we are driving in a circle here, we agree to disagree.

 

[SIY]

Yes I know it is as you say, it is the mystery for me and many others.

When I insist that there are sound differences it is because I have participated in several shootout blind tests and more traditional blind tests.
...
I do not know why recording audio differences does not work in the same way and just as well as switching a cable live in the hi-fi chain itself.

I'm sure there are indeed people who can't or won't understand the very basics here.

I'm sure the experiments were set up and controlled impeccably, right? Because never in the history of audio were poorly-controlled "tests" with lots of coaching ever done at shows, club meetings, and audio dealers leading people to ridiculous (but profitable) conclusions..

The last sentence inadvertently gives away the game.

 

[WeirdFM]

I remember seeing a giant tube made of, or coated with silver, and the reason it's existence was of course Skin effect. I don't remember for what purpose it was made, or what the context I saw it was and I can't find anything on google. But clearly it had something to do with incredibly high frequencies and the absolute minimum possible resistive losses, so presumably an audiophile somewhere was trying to figure out which Linn turntable makes the feet tap the hardest.

 

[SIY]

I remember seeing a giant tube made of, or coated with silver, and the reason it's existence was of course Skin effect. I don't remember for what purpose it was made...

Common for microwave power transmission.

 

[mhardy6647]

CCAW is often used in headphones. CCAW main advantage is lower weight yet easy to solder. You would have to cut the wire in order to distinquish it from regular copper wire.

Does the copper cladding make any sense (other than soldering) vs. just aluminum?
No skin effect at audio frequencies (to speak of), right?

 

[mhardy6647]

Which has shown that there are sound differences and sound differences basically follow the price tag the cheapest cables were the worst and the expensive the best.

I'm sure there are indeed people who can't or won't understand the very basics here.

I'm sure the experiments were set up and controlled impeccably, right? Because never in the history of audio were poorly-controlled "tests" with lots of coaching ever done at shows, club meetings, and audio dealers leading people to ridiculous (but profitable) conclusions..

The last sentence inadvertently gives away the game.

The correlation of sound quality with (apparently) only price of cable is interesting and ought to be pretty straightforward to get to the bottom of, scientifically.

 

[Mnyb]

Wow logically the overwhelmingly most likely explanation for this is a failed experiment , cant anyone see that.

Tell tales:

"Which has shown that there are sound differences and sound differences basically follow the price tag the cheapest cables were the worst and the expensive the best. "

"I do not know why recording audio differences does not work in the same way and just as well as switching a cable live in the hi-fi chain itself. "

 

[solderdude]

Does the copper cladding make any sense (other than soldering) vs. just aluminum?
No skin effect at audio frequencies (to speak of), right?

Soldering aluminium requires special solder and soldering techniques. CCAW can be soldered with regular solder.
it has nothing to do with skin effect but everything with weight reduction and power handling.

 

[Mnyb]

Soldering aluminium requires special solder and soldering techniques. CCAW can be soldered with regular solder.
it has nothing to do with skin effect but everything with weight reduction and power handling.

It also reduces "electrochemical corrosion" or "galvanic corrosion" (my English for science is not on top , but you get it )you don't want copper against aluminum if its not airtight and water tight .
Just introduce some moisture and the two different metals starts to corrode each other

We used special cable shoes for this in the power industry .

 

[solderdude]

Indeed but voicoil wire is always isolated by a thin isolating layer otherwise a voicecoil would not be a coil any more.

 

[WeirdFM]

Does the copper cladding make any sense (other than soldering) vs. just aluminum?
No skin effect at audio frequencies (to speak of), right?

I can't imagine what would be the case where you are making a coil and also worried about the skin effect. But I've been known to lack imagination. Maybe some resonant circuit? (Transformers do not count as coils)

 

[mansr]

I do not hear better than others, I am not and do not look like

Where did you find that photo of Rob Watts?

 

[WeirdFM]

There is nothing about carrying an electrical signal at audio frequencies which could cause resonance in a cable that could change the signal it is carrying.

Nothing in the cable, but in a poorly constructed amplifier some amount of parasitic inductance in the cable paired with just the right speaker can make it oscillate. Thankfully those rare exceptions are typically reserved for high-end gear.