Riddle me this: how is carbon a conductor?

Hmmm! Interesting thread! I don't know what to say that
has not been said, but I will just say, that I blow a lot
of money on this hobby loosing $$$$$$$$$ right & left, but
the Wolff carbon ribbon source pc has been a keeper.
So I guess with all the debate, I can just say it sounds
fantastic!!

A few questions for Michael Wolff: from what I understand, the conductive properties of graphite come from the way the carbon elements are arranged. The carbon graphite crystal is a hexagon with only 4 carbon atoms bonded. This leaves one outer ring electron free per atom to bounce around from atom to atom within the entire crystal. This causes the conductivity.
But does not this arrangement depend on the atoms always touching each other? And, wouldn't any stress or movement eventually weaken the material and cause some atoms to lose contact with each other (thus lose conductivity)? What is the life expectancy of your cables and does mechanical motion and normal electrical conduction shorten the life? Thanks for bearing with me.

Excessive stress and movement in any power cord or wire device would eventually cause a fatigue condition and which would lead to a mechanical failure. If the transmission of either AC power or a signal of any kind is dependent on the
the ability of the compound to share electrons, it would indeed cause either a degradation or failure.
We recommend just as any power cord manufacturer not to use your power cords (especially the expensive ones) as bolo whips since thrashing them around over your head does indeed shorten their life expectancy and could lead to tennis elbow.

Trelja:

Carbon has two natural crystalline allotropic forms: graphite and diamond: you are of course correct.  Each has its own distinct crystal structure and properties. Carbon nanotubes and buckeyballs, however, are distinct allortropic forms of carbon, so there are more than "two" (although neither of the above two are germane to this discussion).

Here is a quote from a website: http://www.azom.com/details.asp?ArticleID=1630

You can read the whole article if you are interested. In this forum a technical discussion is surely not in order.

"Graphite derives its name from the Greek word "graphein", to write. The material is generally greyish-black, opaque and has a lustrous black sheen.  It is unique in that it has properties of both a metal and a non-metal.  It is flexible but not elastic, has a high thermal and electrical conductivity, and is highly refractory and chemically inert.

The unusual combination of properties is due its crystal structure. The carbon atoms are arranged hexagonally in a planar condensed ring system.  The layers are stacked parallel to each other.  The atoms within the rings are bonded covalently, whilst the layers are loosely bonded together by van der Waals forces.  The high degree of anisotropy in graphite results from the two types of bonding acting in different crystallographic directions."

I don't understand the objection. It is simply true that the electrical conductivity of graphite depends upon the properties of the pi elecrons in the system. 

All that I might add to this is my experience with the Van den hul carbon interconnects. With the added resistence, you may have ground loop hum problems. Also interconnects of over 2 m. cannot be used. They definately had a different sound than silver or copper interconnects.