Curious How These Nordost Speaker Cables Do What They Do

@freediver - in addition to the many comments above regarding purity of conductors and different material types - I believe a couple of other factors in cable performance is the "geometry" and "size" of the conductors

Geometry: is how the conductors are placed withing the actual "cable" itself e,g, one of the most well known geometries is braided - as in Kimber Kables.

Size: of late there is now a growing trend to use a different gauge conductors for signal and neutral conductors.

Personally, after a lot of trial (and error) experimentation - I now use a "helix" cable, where the neutral is twice the gauge of signal conductor and is wrapped around the signal conductor. See link below

http://image99.net/blog/files/d048bbacfce9bcad4a025be804771d9a-76.html

My thought process is that this design eliminates any noise transfer (by inductance) from the signal conductor into the neutral conductor, which can occur with cables where the two conductors lie side-by-side inside a sleeve.

The noise transferred into the neutral is fed back into the neutral side of the amp and interferes with its operation , so removing that noise enhances clarity. Enhanced clarity also improves the "phase effect" between left and right channels which improves the Imaging.

I’ve found the Helix design provides exceptional clarity and superb 3D imaging along with a more detailed and deeper bass performance.

My thought process may be "flawed", but the Helix Cables works exceptionally well :-)

Anyhow - I believe geometry is just one more thing to consider when selecting ALL cables.

Regards - Steve

@ieales - I find your comments in response to my post a little perplexing...

People, Electronics 101: Ohms Law : An amplifier / loudspeaker is a series circuit and the same current flows through all of the components

. Actually Ohms law states

The potential difference (voltage) across an ideal conductor is proportional to the current through it. The constant of proportionality is called the "resistance", R.Ohm’s Law is given by: V = I R where V is the potential difference between two points which include a resistance R.

As stated above ohms law actually applies to a DC circuit - there is inductance and capacitance (i.e. reactance) to take into account when applying it to AC circuits.

But I do concede that it can "loosely" be applied to AC circuits - just not that loosely in this case.

As for...

Ergo the same current flows in both the plus and minus wire.

That may not exactly be the case for speaker cables...

Allow me to cite Physics 101"...

Energy can be neither created nor destroyed, but can change form

And the definition of a loudspeaker... 

A transducer is a device that converts one form of energy into another form. For example, in a loudspeaker, electrical energy in a wire coil set up by the current is converted into the vibration (mechanical energy) of the speaker diaphragm and then into a sound wave (acoustical energy).

 So, there is current (i.e. energy) flowing down the signal (i.e. the plus) conductor, which in a loudspeaker is "mostly" converted into motion and heat in the driver coils.

Ergo - the current (i.e. energy), or maybe even the voltage, in the neutral (i.e. minus) conductor cannot possibly be the same as the signal conductor.

As for ...

A wire configured differently for each leg may sound different but it sure ain’t due to the signal contaminating the neutral.

You then go on to cite

Weird geometry will change the Proximity Effect and thus the cable eq.

Proximity Effect? would that be (i.e. according to Wiki)

A changing magnetic field will influence the distribution of an electric current flowing within an electrical conductor, by electromagnetic induction

So we appear to agree on one thing - INDUCTION causes a cable to behave differently

Listen - I do not know the why’s and wherefore’s as to the reasons why helix geometries perform better than standard geometries.

What I AND some "industry professionals" have observed when using cables utilizing a Helix geometry...
- they outperform most other cables having more "conventional" geometries
- they offer outstanding clarity and expansive imaging
- they excel in dynamic performance
- they provide exceptional control and depth of the lower frequencies
- they do not colour the sound

I thought long and hard before responding to your rather bombastic response to my post above.

We are all here to learn and share - no one person has ALL the answers.

I was just offering an opinion as to...

How These Nordost Speaker Cables Do What They Do

From that perspective - what I have seen is that some Nordost cables appear to be using a type of helix geometry combined with different gauge conductors.

But thank you for sharing your thoughts.

Regards - Steve

@almarg and @ieales - thanks for taking the time to explain.

Cheers - Steve

@almarg - I think the lightbulb analogy is not a great example because the bulb is connected between two terminals that are both carrying an alternating voltage/current - I agree in that scenario there would be the same voltage on the +ve and -ve conductors

However in an amp, only the "SIGNAL PATH" of the circuit carries the alternating voltage/current
- the "power rail" is always at some +ve DC voltage
- the neutral rail is always at zero volts.(or should be)

The output terminal of transistor or tube performing the amplification carries the AC signal
- but the neutral side of the amp's circuit remains zero volts

The neutral conductor in the speaker cable, being connected to the neutral rail, should be at zero volts - should it not?

 I can see there would be  "a flow of electrical energy" that is from +ve output terminal - via the loudspeaker and cable - returning to the amp's -ve terminal. But somewhere along the way power has to be converted/consumed and that means either the current or the voltage has to change - doesn't it?

Thanks