Solid core vs multistranded digital interconnect.

Solid core wires are typically preferred in any electrical installation, especially those dealing with RF. For the record, digital data is an RF signal.

The only reason that stranded wire is so common is that it is far more flexible and less prone to damage from movement. Stranding introduces all kinds of "weird" things such as stray capacitance, "strand jumping" resulting in unequal signal paths at various frequencies, time smear, etc...

There are differences amongst various designs that try to deal with these problems. Some use network's, some use multiple strands of small gauge solid wire that are individually insulated, etc... Large gauge solid wire has problems of its' own, especially when used as interconnects. Sean
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Sean, the difference between the two interconnects is really something...the horns became visceral when I switched to the Phoenix Gold. I never expected that. Soundstage and dynamics improved a lot, too. In my current setup I'd prefer not to have a rigid digital cable like a solid core. For now. I live in a rental apt.

I'm looking for real world solutions to getting my system to perform at its full potential. It has demonstrated to be more revealling than I ever expected (especially for what I've spent). Bill Parish (GTT Audio) was totally right when he told me I owned some SERIOUS loudspeakers. They're telling me what's going on...

Thanks again.

A brief article in Sound & Vision ( hardly reference material, but...), November 2001 page 115 talks about using solid wire over stranded wire for video usage. As you know, video requires much wider bandwidth than audio and is more finicky due to the higher signal loss at those frequencies. In this article, they compare current solid conductor cables against stranded wires. Their preference is pretty obvious: "a solid copper center for lower resistance". The previous sentence states that one of the benefits of solid wires were that solid wires have "wider bandwidth", most of this due to the aforementioned problems associated with stranded wires. Sean
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