@audioquest4life - seems to make no sense, correct? The short answer - any wire with insulation applied directly to it is worse than bare wire in Teflon tube But the long answer - if interested... In a capacitor the dielectric is applied directly to a plate or foil. In order to get a consistent capacitance every part of the plate or foil must be in contact with the dielectric So with an insulated wire the insulation is effectively the dielectric and applied to the entire surface area of that wire
If you use a bare wire in a Teflon tube, where the inside diameter of the tube is larger than the diameter of the wire, there will be space (i.e. AIR) around the wire and because the tube does not collapse around the wire (like cotton does) the wire only ever touches the tube in one spot.
I first realized this when I read about and tried Dulund tinned copper in Cotton/oil
Here’s my thoughts
Apologies for the long post, but wires and insulations get very complicated :-) Regards - Steve |
In recent years, I have been able to participate in a variety of Cable Demonstrations and Comparisons for the use of Phono 5 Pin DIN >RCA Terminated IC's, Digital RCA Terminated IC's and Speaker Cables. During two of the Three Comparison sessions there were additional attendees at the demonstration. I will offer a bit of info on my recollections of the different occasions. At the Phono Cable Demonstration there was approx' Eight Cables in the line up, all given a Three Track Demonstration in a Home System. Two Silver Cables were available at a purchase price sitting close to the middle price of the range of Copper Cables, the other Silver was the most expensive of all Cables. All attendees were most impressed with the Five Copper Cables over the Three Silver Cables, from recollection I was leaning towards a OCC Silver as a qualifier for a further investigation and potential use. A Copper Cable was selected to be purchased by the systems owner. A Copper Cable that was quite impressive to myself on this occasion, had failed to make a similar impression in another system, after the recommendation was made for it. The Digital IC's were a line up of four, Three produced in Copper and One produced in Silver. The Silver was the most expensive, at close to a £ 1000. In my system the Copper was the most attractive, in all cables used the Silver did not make a impression to compete with the Copper. A Copper Foil was the choice of IC made. At a Speaker Cable Demonstration a Large choice of Speaker Cables were available, from Owned to Loaned in for the Demonstrations and Selection Purposes. The end assessment was that there were a Copper and a Silver as the Cable types to be selected as a Purchase. Each of these stood out as having quite a noticeable separation in SQ over the other Cables when used on the persons Home System When compared to each other there were similarities and differences, with a noticeable weight to the Bass from the Silver. Two Attendees purchased the Silver and are very satisfied with their choice to use Silver, I have heard the Silver on follow up occasions in both Systems and fully agree with the choices made. I use the Copper Cable that was the Cable being used as the Comparison Cable to the Silver Cable that was chosen. As said above there are variables at the interfaces that are unique to a system, these will prove to be of importance when a cables performance is being assessed. A performance of a Cable and how the inter relation of a Device and Cable are being perceived for delivering a satisfactory and preferred SQ, is not easy to describe within a thread, experiencing the Cable Builds with the system of choice is a important part of the process. |
@williewonka Not that you need any validation but Roger Skoff has long argued that cables are just another form of capacitors, though not intended to work that way. https://positive-feedback.com/audio-discourse/capacitors-speakers-cables-and-other-magic-stuff/ All the best, Nonoise |
@nonoise - thank you for that link - I just wished I had seen it when it was published. It would have save me a lot of time :-) I guess my first learning experience WRT cables and the effects/impacts of capacitance was around 10 years ago - I purchased a NAIM amp and they state on their web site that speaker cables having high capacitance will damage their amps, due to oscillation. But my thought process at that time was focused more on the capacitance between the two conductors - which is more akin to a capacitor and probably responsible for the change in tonality It wasn’t until more recently that I applied some thought as to how the signal in the wire could be impacted by the insulation of that wire. Which proved to be more of an impact to clarity and details This became very apparent once I had tried the same wire with different insulations in my Interconnects,
This paragraph from the article sums up nicely the impact an insulation of a wire has on the signal... Because this energy, once stored, is released back into the signal path out of phase with the incoming signal, either canceling incoming increments of signal or creating out-of-phase discharge artifacts, this is hugely important and is, in itself, proof that cables or any other capacitor in your system can make a difference to its sound.Thanks again for the article - it's good to have "the Why's" confirmed Cheers - Steve |
