Best DIY silver solder?

I wouldn’t use solder for speaker cables. I would however use excellent crimp rings as well as sweat the heat shrink. WBT and Furutech both have this type of arrangement.

Having said that, My favorite by far is still Cardas, but I’m not sure if it’s still available or not. I got a big roll when they were on closeout last year.

Also consider your question over at DIYAudio.com where you’ll find lots of guys with oversized soldering irons with opinions. :)

Best,


Erik

I agree with the above post....Don't solder, CRIMP, and heat shrink them. Check out the Furez line of pure copper spades and bananas, which can be re-used on different wires you may be experimenting with. They use hex keys to tighten down to the wire with, and can be easily removed. If you don't like the wire you are experimenting with, you can re-use the terminations.

I crimped and then soldered heating wire first to avoid thermal expansion of the connector.  That way it keeps direct oxygen free connection and it is strong.  I used WBT solder but it might not make much difference since the solder is only 4% silver.

Thanks so far guys for your replies! Very useful info! 🙏🏻

Check out CARDAS. Happy holidays. Pete

Cardas.

Thanks! I'm building some interconnects and found some Cardas!  🙏🏻

I see that you already got your solder. I wanted to add that I have used
Cardas solder for the last 12 or so years. I have always liked it. The solder is very easy to work with and is easy to melt/resolder on connections. The solder does contains silver as well as copper. I will say that I am very sensitive to anything with silver elements (even a silver-plated fuse clip pushed the sound into that silver area too much for me!). The Cardas solder has never exhibited the "silver" sonic signature. There might be other silver solder (such as mundorf/wbt) that gives you more of that fast/clean silver signature, but I have not tested with them. I would avoid anything with a higher silver content (mundorf supreme is 9%), but that’s my own personal taste. The Cardas solder does contain lead, so wash your hands thoroughly after working with the solder.

If you want to include Value Johnsons from Australia sounds excellent ,and is less hen 1/2 the price of a Mundorfs best Supreme  it has at least 4% Silver,Copper ,parts connecxion 
sells this,better then Cardas, and WBT From my experiences 
and flows good IMO.

No solder please. Use bare wire if at all possible. All solder and connectors degrade the sound. Go naked and you will find out first hand. 

Just a small point for future reference, Rocket. The term "silver solder" refers to a brazing process, using "solder" which flows at high temperature (450 C, 850 F) and up. The process is intermediate between soldering and welding.

Also, check YouTube on how to solder speaker wires by NASA technician: fill the plug with solder, then wick it out, then insert tinned wire and only then Solder! I wish I had the patience to go thru the motions!