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silver voice coil
- Thread starter steve59
- Start date
Aluminum voice coils are common, have not seen (but not looked for) silver. Seems like a very pricey option... I don't recall melting points but I think silver is better than copper, and has slightly less resistance so not a bad idea if you can afford it. I'd be worried they make the silver so small it increases resistance, however, to save costs. Copper and silver have lower resistance than aluminum but also lower melting points IIRC. Heat is an issue in a voice coil, but just one of many variables.
It could also be silver plated...
Can't imagine it impacts performance.
It could also be silver plated...
Can't imagine it impacts performance.
Melting Point
Aluminum: 660°C (1220°F)
Silver: 961°C (1762°F)
Copper: 1084°C (1983°F)
Aluminum probably used for lighter weight
Substance kg/m3 lbs/ft3
Aluminium 2,720 170
Copper 8,960 560
Silver 10,480 655
"Aluminum has 61 percent of the conductivity of copper, but has only 30 percent of the weight of copper."
Whew! I hope we never operate tweeters anywhere near that temperature range.
Hehe... I provided warranty service for Energy and KEF for several years and some of the speakers that came in for service smelled so badly of burned ferrofluid and burned voice coils that we serviced them ASAP just to get rid of them. The KEF owners where a bit better with the gear but the Energy stuff was often abused big time. We where advised to replace the tweeters/woofers under warranty but on the 3rd time they would pay for their repetitive abusing the speakers. The customers received plentyyy of warning to stop blowing drivers or get bigger badder speakers.
Thank you! I was way off with the melting points, but at least I remembered weight and conductivity... Al is lighter and cheaper than copper (or silver, natch).
Speedskater
Major Contributor
Conductivity only matters when both wires have exactly the same diameter and length.
???...
Speedskater
Major Contributor
Conductivity of the metal is what determines the end-to-end resistance of a given wire.
If you know the metal, the wire diameter and length, you can calculate the wire's end-to-end resistance.
Electricity doesn't magically move easier thru silver than copper.
And since tweeters usually have a resistor in the crossover network...well...
MAB
Major Contributor
Silver would require 3% less wire than copper for equivalent DCR. Or have 3% lower DCR for the same turns and wire diameters. I don't know what percentage of a driver's moving mas is the vc, but it seems tiny, and 3% of tiny is super tiny. Silver VC appears to have zero merit. I hope they don't charge a premium for the silver, there's very little of it in the VC and no way it is changing the sound!
Speedskater
Major Contributor
Let's see, weight per g/cm3
Aluminum 2.70
Copper 8.96
Gold 19.32
Silver 10.49
No advantage for silver.
Aluminum 2.70
Copper 8.96
Gold 19.32
Silver 10.49
No advantage for silver.
There's a reason it's unusual that they use silver. Unfortunately, I doubt it has any benefits other than for marketing.
RobL
Addicted to Fun and Learning
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- Mar 4, 2021
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No.
No good reason to use silver wire in a VC except maybe marketing. Copper has 96% of the conductivity of silver but only 85% of the mass. You can get a lighter VC with copper given the same resistance, conversely with the same mass coil, copper with give you more windings = greater flux.
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