Comments on Profile Post by Ardacer

  1. Taverius
    Taverius
    Contacts made of copper too. Too soft - deform too easily, and oxidises instantly.
    Jul 17, 2019
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  2. Thad E Ginathom
    Thad E Ginathom
    My experience with jewellery says that /pure/ ("fine") silver oxidises (sukphardises, etc etc) less readily than the .925 alloy usually used. But it is very soft.
    Anyway, best-possible how? And how does it introduce noise?
    Jul 17, 2019
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  3. Ardacer
    Ardacer
    Scratch that, tin is better than copper and silver at conductivity. Not so great at thermal, while copper and silver are, as well as being great in electrical conductivity too. My guess is that silver, while reacting with sulfur and oxygen, still ages way better than copper.
    Noise apparently comes from the sulfids and oxide layers that have to be broken in the connection.
    Jul 17, 2019
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  4. Taverius
    Taverius
    Tin is too fragile, mechanically. Also tin rot is a thing, although audio cables hopefully wouldn't get cold enough for that to be a real concern.
    Jul 17, 2019
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  5. Thad E Ginathom
    Thad E Ginathom
    Why would you think that silver "ages" better than copper? Yes, true that, as I mentioned, stnadard ("sterling") silver seems to tarnish faster than pure silver... due to the coper in it.

    Contacts as in plugs and sockets, rather than, eg switches, need to be kept clean and well-fitting. That is probably more important than material
    Jul 17, 2019
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  6. Thad E Ginathom
    Thad E Ginathom
    Tin? Tin rot and data rot combined... every audiophools dream nightmare!
    Jul 17, 2019
  7. Ardacer
    Ardacer
    You both are absolutelly correct. I personally don't really care about metal choice, really. It's just funny that people choose ultta pure silver all the time while copper is like, almost exactly the same, for the cable itself, and for contacts, it's not even such a great idea anyway. Palladium, tungsten or some such would probably work better for high end connectors than silver or gold. Just pondering.
    Jul 17, 2019
  8. Taverius
    Taverius
    Silver is relatively easy to work with mechanically as cable material, its not too high a price premium, and has a slightly different sound, so it's the most obvious choice for tuning the last 1% with cables. If you're willing to pay unicorn hair money you can get fancier stuff.
    Jul 17, 2019
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  9. Thad E Ginathom
    Thad E Ginathom
    We enter into the world of audio belief, which is something I don't have much of. I do recall a fact-based comparison of silver and copper as electrical conductors. It was something like silver is a small percent better (easy to google) but you need more of it for some reason I don't recall. Maybe mechanical strength?
    Jul 17, 2019
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  10. Ardacer
    Ardacer
    Yeah, me neither. No idea why you'd need more of it, though. Copper has 1.7 times larger Young's modulus, no idea if that'd make any difference.
    Jul 17, 2019
  11. Thad E Ginathom
    Thad E Ginathom
    Now you're just Young's-modulus waving!

    I'd wave mine back, except I don't know what it is :)
    Jul 18, 2019
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  12. Ardacer
    Ardacer
    Hahahah
    It's a measure of, well, elasticity of material, that actually being it's resistance to deformation. Hard rubber is very elastic, chewing gum isn't much.
    Jul 18, 2019
  13. Ardacer
    Ardacer
    And obviously, a thicker wire made from the same material is stiffer
    Jul 18, 2019
  14. Thad E Ginathom
    Thad E Ginathom
    Do we care about it being elastic? For the purposes of electricity...
    Jul 18, 2019
  15. Ardacer
    Ardacer
    Absolutely! Electrons know how much you paid for the cable and adjust performance adequatelly. That's why you must never buy second hand too!

    On a serious note, no, I don't see why we would at all.
    Jul 18, 2019
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  16. Thad E Ginathom
    Thad E Ginathom
    Just one more point, then I'll shut up about metals!

    Always seems to me that people are saying that silver sounds /brighter./ Anthropomorphism much? Why aren't the bass-heads using lead cables? |lol|
    Jul 18, 2019
  17. Taverius
    Taverius
    It does slightly, but it might just be a perceptual thing because it also sounds slightly faster. You can also affect bass slightly by using thicker cables. It's all pretty small changes though, and I mainly get nice cables for the ergonomics of a soft cable that doesn't make noise when it rubs on clothing/chair.
    Jul 18, 2019
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