Riddle me this: how is carbon a conductor?

Oxia,

Carbon's RF transparency is directly related to it's conductivity!

Rock,

My understanding of carbon in spark plugs is that it is used *because* a spark gap is and extreme situation. An interconnect, however....

Herman,

Now my physics gets a little foggy (or perhaps it is the beer :-), but you do raise an interesting question. My inital cut is that for the resistance (which is important to IC's) is 1000 times greater than the other conductors (assuming equal conductor area and length). Thus, this presents a 1000 greater load on the source component. Moreover, if you're using carbon along with these other conductors, the effective resistance chucks the carbon component of the "conductor" into the noise: it's the metals which will relay the signal to the load.

So why is it there?

Let's just say we have 10 the cross sectional area of carbon over the metals. We still have 20db less signal being passed through the carbon. At this point, don't conductor geometries play a larger role in what is audible?

Thanks,

Herman,

The reason I take this approach is that the souce component will drive the interconnect and it's target load. Thus, the voltage drop you say we are concerned amount is impacted by the IR drop across the IC. This isn't anymore complicated than Ohm's Law (Freshman Physics).

Look, I'm not trying to get into a peeing contest, nor am I looking to create a flame-fest. I'm trying to understand if a manufacture's claims are supported so I may make a determination to explore their product offering. In this case, I've come to a conclusion. BTW, my conclusion should not impact anyone else's enjoyment of Mr. Wolff's products.

Sincerely,

Lee

Well, Sean (welcome back), that's my point:

1) Why is carbon in the signal path?
2) Given that carbon is ~30db poorer in conducting the signal: are we not hearing differences in the the conductor geometry and dielectric loading of the cable? (which are material to the sound of a cable)

Herman,

Impedance is a combination of capacitance, inductance, and resistance. The best you can hope for in a complex conductor is to make it purely resistive, so you're still left with the physics of carbon being a poor conductor. (which is why it rejects RFI & why they use in in the Stealth, and all the other nonrelevant "technical" descriptions loop back to conductivity)

Best,