Top resistors

I’m mostly with @salectric though sometimes I want to try some of the really exotic thick-film types, that come in TO type containers like this:

http://partsconnexion.com/resistors_caddock_mp.html

Put a heat sink on them and I think they would make a crossover look slick as hell. :)

No idea about the sound quality. :)

IME, the thicker the film, the more ’grey/grainy’ the sound.

IME, go for thin film, when and where you can.

That balance between the best and the least expensive.

The thin films will be tougher to find, as thick film is generally the industry solution for modern designs and use (surface mount, etc). Lower rates of rejection in the build (lower % of value error) and higher thermal swings can be handled. They can pound them out like tiny perfected sausages, and sell sell sell....

Except for the fact of the addition of dynamic noise from the thick film, which matters little in most electronics builds, but counts greatly in an audio build.

So one builds a great piece of gear ’x’, and uses thin film. The unit is seen as being a bit dark.

Then one wants to say "no’, you’re just illiterate as to what coloration and obscuration the gear you normally listen to -brings to the table". Which is, of course, sometimes perceived as a deep insult.

Better gear, oddly enough... can be (and is) a hard sell in a world centered on a noise standard that sits unrealized by and in the general buying public. Too many layers to sort through in those grounds they walk on.

The trick is about getting people past the personal discomfort aspect, without raising it’s spectre - into a state of conflict.

The interesting thing about the liquid metal is that the noise is dynamic and signal shaped. In other words, a dynamic impedance.

In a thick film, the lattice is frozen, so under dynamic loading the noise is born by the signal.

In the molecualr level fluid, there is no lattice, and thus the noise is lessened by the correct level of of signal drive and dynamics.

EG, one can't use the liquid metal cables for uV and mV  (single digit) level phono signals. With line level signals, it is a different matter. Add in the response to it's own field emanations, and you've got a very strange and different animal.

Think of it this way: If you had a perfectly noise free transistor, it would not exhibit it's primary function.

Which is only part of the equation.

Glass is a dielectric when in solidus forum. When in liquid form, it is a conductor.

Which takes you (eventually) back 'round to this aspect of 'secretive alloys' (and their construction) for the vishay bulk foil resistors. Secretive for good reason. It's one hell of a data set to have in hand in the world of materials design. (to be applied elsewhere)

If liquid metal really is the cats meow then it should work better for low level signals. From what I understand it is a tin/mercury slurry, both of which are not great conductors, or i should say, not the best conductors.

Most importantly, it contains no mercury, it is a tri-eutectic that has no mercury.

And the updated medical research (more than a few studies done as of now) on these eutectic blends, this data says the toxicology is zero... none ever found.

http://www.rgmd.com/msds/msds.pdf