Has anybody tried using single solid core cables?

Multi strand has timing problems, try checking out Anti Cables or Aural Thrills.

Just out of interest, can anyone tell me what 8 strands of 24 gauge wire adds up to? It's what I'm currently using (8x24awg on both pos. and neg. so 16x24awg overall? Not sure how it works. The internet has been unhelpful)

Uberdine, in this wire gauge table AWG 24 is indicated as having a resistance of 25.67 ohms per thousand feet. Eight of them in parallel would have a resistance of 25.67/8 = 3.21 ohms per thousand feet. As you can see in the table that is very close to the resistance of AWG 15. So each of your two conductors is approximately equivalent to AWG 15.

Regards,
-- Al

Ozzy, your onto the real deal. I agree with your findings based on recent endeavors.

With the exception of my interconnects (copper/silver alloy, stranded) my power and speaker cables use solid core conductors.

The power cables are ~15 gauge DIY Home Depot-style solid core wires, twisted and non-shielded. These are connected sans powerstrip so that the respective conductor-ends (lead, return and ground wire) are tightened directly to each other via screw terminals.

Speaker cables are Mundorf's ~15 gauge Silver/gold (99% silver; 1% gold) solid core wires, teflon insulated, and tightly spaced in a pure cotton outer sleeve. As an on/off experiment these are connected in (single-wire) parallel mode with Mundorf copper foil coil-"wires" (28*0.07mm = ~14 gauge), with the foils more loosely spaced.

A friend gave me this tip, and while initially I was somewhat reluctant into following his advice - for no other reason really than ill-based skepticism (I'm no "techie") - I must say this combination of copper foil and silver/gold wire offers a very satisfying result as well. Compared to the silver/gold wires alone leading edges here seem sharper, less smeared; low end appears better integrated and more coherent, likely because of better very low end control and mid bass energy; mids have slightly more texture, fullness and presence, and the highs are a bit smoother with more substance.

Overall the sense of quickness, coherency, lack of smear, and presence/texture is more outspoken - in a sense a more intimate presentation, but without the soundstage being restricted as such.

I'd be very interested in knowing from others who've experimented with parallel speaker cable runs in single-wire configuration (solid core, preferably :)), particularly with different conductor materials and/or overall cable geometry.

From the perspective of wire directionality, how many high end cable manufacturers are there that mark their solid core cables with directional arrows? Part 2 - are there any manufacturers of stranded cables that mark their cables with directional arrows? Or would that be expecting too much, keeping track of the proper direction of all the various strands?

Try hooking your cables up backwards...all hell breaks loose, the cat explodes, and music becomes an unlistenable heap of cacophony rendering the listener on the floor curled into the fetal position wimpering, "stop, please stop."

No one has mentioned that the insulator or dialectic material is as important as the conductor.

I purchased couple of feet of 16 awg, OCC copper, SOLID CORE, Neotech hook up wire with Teflon jacket from Parts Connexion and silk tubing to conduct an experiment on my Cronus Magnum.

The cronus uses pvc jacketed, multi-stranded wire throughout the amp's power distribution. I switched the wires going from the IEC inlet to the fuse and from the fuse to the amp's circuit board with the newly purchased, teflon jacketed, solid core, Neotech wire. There was no doubt that the sound had changed when I first listened with the new wire. The teflon tremendously colored the sound. All natural dynamics and tonality that I previously had was lost. The sound stage shrunk in width and extended deeper in depth. The imaging gained focus and layering. Teflon caps have a burn in period of 450 hours but there was no way I could wait that long for these cables to "burn in".

I listened with the teflon wire for a week then I stripped off the teflon and replaced it with the silk tubing. Again, there was an immediate change in sound. The OEM sound returned. The original naturalness and dynamics was present. I decided to leave the wire alone and I did not listen to the stock wire vs. the silk insulated solid core wire.

Keep in mind that these differences were noticed from wire that wasn't even in the signal path.

For those of you who heard differences in solid core vs. multi-stranded wires: were the insulators made of identical materials between the 2 types of wires?

I just switched from stranded #10 carol wire to #12 solid core for some power cables.
There is a difference.
The carol stranded had a big robust sound.

The solid core had more inner detail,I noticed little things that were buried with the stranded.

I am sticking with the smooth but detailed sound of the solid core.

Solid core copper and stranded copper do not sound the same.
Solid core DIY speaker wire had less bass but the treble and mids were much more defined and less tizzy.
I could always hear a difference when I used each type of wire as DIY bypass fuses.

The solid core DIY fuse was less harsh than the stranded.

I no longer use DIY fuse bypass devices, as there are replacements for the stock fuses today.

Yes, I have experimented with solid core copper and solid core silver cables. The sound is unnatural, but it can make vocals sound better than they are.

A good solid core cable can be competitive with a midrange stranded cable. But in the upper levels of performance, stranded cables rule. Some would say that the top level solid core Audioquest is competitive with the best Nordost, Cardas, MIT, Purist, but that's not my experience.

I've come around to thinking it's all in the implementation and the particular system. Right now, I have solid core silver for my ICs and tinned, stranded copper for my SCs.
It's the best I've heard in my present system.

Coli, interesting personal observation on the unnatural sound and the betterment of the human voice. I know from recently using silver solid core SCs that voices were better presented than most other parameters of the musical event and that leading edges were hightened at the expense of the rest of the note. That could be why it was so engaging, at first, and then left me unsatisfied after.

I still believe that there are better made solid core SCs out there but they are beyond my financial reach.

All the best,
Nonoise

I recently after reading on the subject of Solid core wires I experimented with some 10Ga Solid core magnet wire in my system. I Have Infinity Irs Betas and I must say the results were quite good. This of course is a situation where this might sound good in my system but not so good in another system.

Yes, it's all system dependent. I went back to an older pair of solid core copper speaker cables and I now have the music literally in front of the speakers and all on the same plane. It's not quite holographic but the level of resolution is beyond what I thought possible.

The center fill is nothing short of astounding as everything seems quite palpable compared to before, with the images spreading out to almost outside the speakers. Couple it all with the resolution of a good pair of headphones and it leaves me scratching my balding head as to just why this combo of amp, cables and speakers sound so great and then it dawned on me that it wasn't until I got my speakers that it all came together. So yes, it's all system dependent.

All the best,
Nonoise

I am currently using solid core wires only. Of all the cables tried, they seem to follow along the tunes better. When it comes to wire design IMO less is always more. It is not uncommon for Hi-Enders to try a variety of cables within the same price range only to find the sound to be different and not necessarily better. Wire companies know that only too well, and they excell at selling different sounds and not necessarily better.
As for me, I try to focus on simple designs coupled with high quality cables, the little known Shishido silver and copper. All single wire (as opposed to multi wire, solid core which IMO is tantamount to stranded wire). The sound is dense and musical, sweet and organic without being sirupy or veiled whatsoever. I wouldn't dare venturing again in that maze of solid vs hollow ribbon vs geometric etc. etc.

Tried them went back to my STEALTH V14 much better detail.

Since my earlier post about using all solid core, I did a tweak. Brass conducts less effectively than copper, and I so I took my cheap banana plugs out of the loop. I also used DeOxit on all of the connections. I'm getting better highs now.

On using romex or "HomeDepot" wire, there is a drawback. Larger gauge copper has skin effect, and the wire will also oxidize quickly compared to OFC.

I concur on removing the terminations. My Mapleshade Double Helix are simply bare wire and sound all the better for it. I've read on other sites where some have removed the terminations on their Anti-Cables for better sound.

As for gauge, the Mapleshades are around 18 ga which seems to hit a sweet spot of sorts. Works like a charm.

All the best,
Nonoise

I'd like to add my 2 cents to the long list of responses above, pertaining to solid core cables vs. "whatever".  I have a considerable collection of interconnects and speaker cables of all lengths, aquired over the past 50 years. All of them, different designs, based upon bundles of stranded copper and silver plated wires, and almost every concept of insulation, isolation and shielding imaginable.
That said; - - -  along the way, (about 20 years ago) I stumbled into an ad in Stereophile (I think) for a small private company in Florida who was making and marketing Solid core, twisted pair, enameled high purity copper speaker cables, terminated with your choice of quality bananas or spades. The thing that caught my eye was the price. At that point in time I was using 15' speaker cables (due to routing requirements). I called the owner and he said he could make me a pair with bananas and ship them out same day. He even said that I could ship them back for a refund if I didn't like them. And the price was $25.00 for a pair. MY God, how could I not check them out.
When they arrived I just about sh _ _ my pants!! They were so stiff, he might as well used 1/4" copper tubing. Insane ! It never dawned on me that they would be that gnarley. With the way my system was set up at the time there was no way I could use them. Wasn't worth sending them back. So I just coiled them up; - - put them in a box and stored with the rest of my "collection":.
Next encounter ! - - - - about 7 years ago, I ran into a person at an audio show, who said he was a officer of the Chicago Engineering Society. He had in his hand some bold looking (RED) interconnects with VAMPIRE RCA's. We talked about his theory and experiences while developing these cables. Once again they were constructed of heavy gauge enameled solid core OCC high purity copper wire in twisted pair configuration. I thought to myself (Oh no, not this again). So the fellow lived near me and suggested that I take home a pair and try them for a week. Then, either buy the or return them.
O.K., why not!  After a week of some extensive listening and "fiddling", I was so impressed with most of the characteristics of what I was hearing that I handed him $50 and kept them. 
Well, wouldn't you know, over the past 7 years they ended up in storage also. - - - - - until two days ago !!
Very recently I have listened and investigated MORROW cables. A friend bought a pair of phono cables and was amazed. M-M-M-M This is one I passed up. Should I give them a try? O.K. , so I did. The one drawback being that MORROW claimes that some sort of "MAGIC" is supposed to happen after 400 - 600 hours of breakin. Of course they could speed that up with a burn in cycle for a considerable price. I didn't pop for that.
Been using them for a couple of months now, with some mixed results. There were days when they sounded odd; - - almost muddy, but then cleared up. "What's going on here" MORROW said that would happen.
Anyhow to get off the subject of MORROW, - - - - - - -
Three or four days ago, I decided to start cleaning out my collection of audio artifacts. In doing so, I ran across the old RED "ALLIGATOR" cables, as I fondly called them. You know, - - - - I never actually tried them. Well one of my current setups is pretty much modular with components in a open rack. Plenty of room to fool around. So, I disconnected my MORROW'S and plugged in the "RED ALLIGATORS".
Didn't have to concern myself with them lying on carpeting because they are more than stiff enought to suspend themselves. Subsequently, I discovered my RED interconnects, also solid core. You know, I never tried using all solid core through the entire signal path.
To end this long pile of sh _ _ ! After warming up the system for about 1/2 hour, I though I'll try a little serious listening. After about 3 minutes of listening to a VERY familiar CD, I stopped ! I have to try another CD that has always sounded a little harsh, being too closely mic'd. 
All I have to conclude with, is the results were astonishing to say the least. Without any rservation, I was hearing the best overall sound I have ever heard out of my system. ROBUST; VERY DYNAMIC; while at the same time, sounding PURE and TRANSPARENT without any noticible harshness in music passages that had always been there with virtually every combination of wires I have ever tried. Dimensionality of voices and instruments were well placed with appropriate emphasis, in a 3D soundstage, more so that ever heard previously.
You can call what I have said here, a pile of "bull".  Also keep in mind that what I have done here would not be very acctepable to most audiophiles for any number of reasons, but - - - -  If anyone out there is curious enough to locate similar cables and try what I discovered, I believe that you to will be astonished at the totally beautiful sonic presentation. THAT'S IT !!

i second nonoise on mapleshade helix/double helix

outstanding cable

I used to manufacture audiophile cables in the 90s. Music Music Audio Cables. all my cable were multi strand solid core cables. I tried single wire and it either rolled the high end or bottom end depending on diameter. Had to use multiples of various gauge to have it sound right. The only single wire conductor that worked was a rectangular silver plated wire for digital. That said, I think some folk might use silver plated single wire cable. Pick the diameter that gives good base then use silver plate to bring in the highs. That said, Silver plated copper always sounded wrong to me. Exaggerated highs and discontinuity in the sound. As I recall, my interconnects were using something like six 29 gauge oFC copper wire per side and multiple 20 gauge solid core wires for speaker wire. 
I got started making cables after talking to Stan Warren (PS audio) about single core. I used to develop cable by laying multiple bare wire on a piece of masking tape, then placing another piece of masking tape over the top to make a flat "Flypaper" cable. I attached plugs and just played around until it sounded right.
Good connectors are mandatory. I liked connectors without ferrous metal. Silver on brass or Brass with Silver then gold, no nickel. plate to bind the gold. Cardas SLVR and Vampire locking RCA are excellent as well as the ones with a hollow center pin. I also used to favor Wonder Solder for connections. 
So find someone who sells OFC bare wire and have some fun. Don't use these on digital sources or phonos you will just get garbage. Good for CD player to Amp and Pre to amp.
I recently got hold of some cable I made in the 90s and they stand up to some newer model quite well. Obviously technology has improved in 30 year. 
The nice thing about these fly paper interconnects is the dielectric, the paper is as close to an air dielectric as you can get. No Teflon coating or PVC to alter the sound of the wire. 

Best solid core I ever tried is from Acoustic Revive. Sold my Nordost Valhalla and Audioquest and never looked back. Using bare wire, and short lenght. Very analog and organic sound. Still loads of details. Pure music bliss

I’ve tried some VERY cheap solid core telephone wire (0,5mm) for high tones, solid core electric cable (not sure, maybe 2mm) for low tones. OMG the sound was freakin awesome! But of course it’s not a pretty sight all those loose cables. Maybe I’ll try to wind em all together this weekend or something.

I have been wrestling with cable connectivity for many years now. Recently purchased several MORROW cables after reading all of the reports. Their design approach was different than other cable manufacturers I have tried, and been and been left with that "lack luster" feeling, just shy of dissapointment ! Anyhow, MORROW'S cables sounded at least as good as the best I have tried, right out of the box with minimal break in. I was set back a bit, by their claim that the cables had to be broken for 400-500 hours to reach their peak performance. Basically, after several hunderd hours, I did some very detailed A/B tests with the MORROW cables against my other three top performing cables. The results were somewhat mixed. Bottom line; - -  the MORROW cables sounded as good as my other three test cables, in most areas, but I honestly can't say that I found any significant increase in audible performance by comparison, as their advertisments promote.  So, on to the next step.!!

Several years ago I purchased some solid core cables that proved to be very difficult to install in my large audio console, due ti their extreme stiffness. At the time, I didn't pay much for them so I gave it up, and set them aside. A couple of years later I purchased a pair of solid core interconnects from an individual associated with the Chicago Audio Engineering Society. Very strong performance testimonies ! Again they proved to be very difficuly to route and install. I asked for a specific length, which the individual accomodated me with. Anyhow after installation and break in, I felt that the cables did sound different than others, in a good way. Without going into detail, I liked the cables enough to leave them in my system and purchased another pair. Again, as time went on, I ended up retiring them, and were replaced  with some very expensive interconnects that I managed to obtain two pair from a dealer who I had an association with, at a very large discount.  The cables impressed me in several areas and resulted in my leaving them installed as my reference cables. 

That brings me up to a couple of weeks ago.  I had some time on my hands, so I decided to do some experimentation after reading blogs pertaining to solid core versus stranded cables. 

I happened to have (lying around) A  solid core power cable that I used on and off, plus the old solid core interconnects and speaker cables. I thought, "what the hell", I'm going to try ALL solid core wiring from my power outlet; - -  the interconnect between my CD player to the amp, and then (with a great deal of wrestling) managed to route the very stiff speaker cables to my reference speakers. Anyhow, after system warm up, I thought that I would try a listening test with a couple of CD's that always had a slightly distorted, grainy sound, especialy during very dynamic higher frequencies. Well, surprise, surprise !! All the grain, strain and distortion disappeared. At first I was set back a bit, having some difficulty understanding what was going on here, and beliving what I was hearing. So I dug out several other CD's that I felt had always proven to be problematic sounding, in different areas.  "SAME RESULTS" They all sounded as though they had been "re-mastered", so to speak.  All the "grunge" was gone.  Anyhow, after this revelation,I thought I'd share this with anyone who wants to read my ramblings. It seems, at this point, that the "trick" here was using solid core wiring connections from the power outlet all the way to the loudspeakers.  When I have more time, I intend to do more A/B tests to determine, in my mind, if the premise here is valid. All I can say at this point is that the experience here was a real eye opener, and a strong accolade for the use of solid core OCC high purity copper cableing throughout an audio system. That seems to be the answer as to why using solid core, just here and there during listening tests, never yielded these astounding results.  So be it !!

Quite the mixed bag of opinions in this thread - so here’s my observations of wires tried in the past year :-)

In order of preference (Good to Best) by cable type

Interconnects (signal wire)...
- 1 x16 and 2 x 16 gauge Duelund stranded - Tinned Copper in Cotton/Oil
- 2 x 18 gauge Solid copper with AirLok insulation - VH Audio
- 2 x 18 gauge Mundorf Solid (bare wire) - Silver/Gold(1%) in Cotton Sleeve
NOTE: - the last two appear to be extremely close sonically

Speaker (signal wire)
- 1 x 12 gauge Duelund Stranded - Tinned Copper - polymer insulation
- 1 x 16 gauge Duelund Stranded - Tinned Copper - Cotton oil
- 2 x 18 gauge Solid copper with AirLok insulation - VH Audio

Power Cables (Live wire)
- 1 x 12 gauge Duelund Stranded - Tinned Copper - polymer insulation (FOR SOURCE AND AMP)
- 4 x 18 gauge Solid copper with AirLok insulation - VH Audio (FOR SOURCE AND AMP)
- 1 x 18 gauge Mundorf Solid - Silver/Gold(1%) in Cotton Sleeve (FOR SOURCE COMPONENTS)
- 1 x 12 gauge Neotec OCC Solid copper (bare wire) in cotton sleeve (FOR AMP)
OR if oyu don’t like cotton sleeve for power cables...
- 1 x 12 gauge Neotec OCC Solid copper (bare wire) in teflon tube

Please NOTE: the neutral wires on all of the above cables are stranded, Silver Plated Mil-Spec (Cryo treated) with Teflon insulation - I have tried better quality wires for the neutral, but they made no difference.

Are there better wires? - probably, but these are the wires I have settled on - for now :-)

In general, I observed improvements in...
- Clarity - more noticeable vocal textures (e.g. sibilance) and cymbal work
- Details - in both upper frequencies - a lot more venue acoustic details and for lower frequencies - bass textures
- Dynamics - significantly better bass "slam" and crisper drums/guitars
- Image size and artist placement accuracy and focus in width and depth

It appears, to my ears at least, that Solid conductors provide the best sound quality - however, the type of insulation also plays a significant role in sound quality...
- the best being a bare wire in a cotton sleeve OR in a Teflon tube that allows for air between the wire and the side of the tube.
- Insulations that are molded onto the wire, like Teflon, PVC, appear to have a significant impact whereas foamed insulation variants (like that on the VH Audio wire) performs noticeably better than non-foamed.

Just another opinion :-)

Regards - Steve

@runnin , The impact of the inductance of ROMEX will far exceed any impact of skin resistance at audio frequencies, i.e. 20KHz.

runnin397 posts11-16-2015 1:10pm

On using romex or "HomeDepot" wire, there is a drawback. Larger gauge copper has skin effect, and the wire will also oxidize quickly compared to OFC.

I agree with williewonka's findings. VH Audio's wire with Airlok foamed dielectric is an excellent choice. The V-Quad cable for use as DC umbilical cables get two thumbs-up from me.