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Silver cable

ny
Dozey said:
What makes you think it is the resistance of the wire that affects sound quality? In fact, what makes you think you know what property of the wire to measure that correlates with sound quality? Any references?
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Well, do you have any references to a property of mains cable that might affect sound quality and which we might measure? And particularly to any measurable value that changes if the sole change is to substitute silver for copper (other than a very small change to the resistance)?
 
The problem is that silver, despite being the best conductor, isn’t a perfect conductor. What you want is a superconductor, which is possible only if you cryotreat your entire system. However, this makes listening impractical, as few people apart from Canadians are hardy enough to withstand the low temperatures, often just a hair above absolute zero.

A heated space suit is a solution but then you have the helmet to contend with, which isn’t ideal acoustically.

It really gets complicated, so my suggestion is to go with copper and save your cabbage for something that really matters.

Joe
 
AndrewM said:
ny
Well, do you have any references to a property of mains cable that might affect sound quality and which we might measure? And particularly to any measurable value that changes if the sole change is to substitute silver for copper (other than a very small change to the resistance)?
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No. I didn't make any such claim, so I have nothing to prove.
 
Yes you might think that if silver has such magical properties then the PCB/electronics which do the real magic might be smothered in the stuff.
 
A silver plated PCB would not be solderable for very long. Silver is not very expensive, about $500 per kg, so it is not price stopping its use in small quantities
 
misterdog said:
Yes you might think that if silver has such magical properties then the PCB/electronics which do the real magic might be smothered in the stuff.
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Indeed! Far more bizarre still is that as usual 8 pages have been wasted debating something which any one with an IQ of more than 2 digits should see cannot possibly have any effect.... and in this case could be dangerous... but if I was to mention things which DO have an effect, often big effects, only those with some actual knowledge of electronics would be able to join in and the thread would die instantly. Hi fi IS electronics and acoustics. If you have no knowledge of either you're in no real position to debate it or to even have an opinion really beyond whether you like the sound and the styling!
I wonder, do audiophools join medical forums and post "I know nothing about medicine but that's not how I'd do open heart surgery"...

To me these sort of threads which appear on a daily if not hourly basis are akin to watching car enthusiasts seriously debating the "benefits" of mixing cross ply and radials and maybe adding sugar to the petrol... yes that ridiculous.... at first you check the date and then seeing it's not April 1st you realise that yes they genuinely believe it could be a good idea!

So, lets discuss real things that have big effects. For starters how about the effect of Early voltage in the voltage amplifier stage of solid state power amps? Prefer valve amps eh? OK then the influence of leakage induction in output transformers? Where's all that tumble weed come from...

OK I forgot for a second that I'm addressing (some) audiophools... how about; does placing a tin of corned beef on each speaker give them a meatier bottom end then? This one could run for pages! Russ Andrews will be doing deals with Frey Bentos within days to bring out silver plated cans of corned beef, threads will be started to debate Argentinian V Brazilian corned beef...
 
Arkless Electronics said:
... does placing a tin of corned beef on each speaker give them a meatier bottom end then?
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Only if they are upside-downers like the little 1980s Mission bookshelfers, surely?

Ed: I suppose I could rotate the steel plate in my Kef Reference 103s so the woofer is at the top, and then try.
 
You could spend a gazillion pound adding thicker cables to your mains, which might reduce the resistance of the wire by miliohms.

Or you could spend a couple of hundred quid on room treatment. Your choice. Actually your little burrow should be dead easy to treat being so small.
 
sq225917 said:
You could spend a gazillion pound adding thicker cables to your mains, which might reduce the resistance of the wire by miliohms.

Or you could spend a couple of hundred quid on room treatment. Your choice. Actually your little burrow should be dead easy to treat being so small.
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My other half disagrees with your statements. In her satisfied opinion, girth is more pleasurable than length. On rare occasions when my winky turns into winkywoo, less girth could possibly reduce her experienced pleasure. More resistance is often desirable to compensate for the loss in thickness whenever I am unable to burrow balls deep. A smaller hole also procures a tighter response.
 
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Though imagine the heightened ecstasy we will all share when you wire up your winkywoo to your 32A mains breaker with 6mm x2 solid silver cable.
 
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