teflon wire question

[Jackie Treehorn]

right on, have you ever used it? Watts carries some stuff too. Does not specify if it has plating. I read somewhere that they can't do it without plating it. I want pure copper. thanks

Extensively! inside guitar amps, hifi amps, in guitars, in my stereo speakers, in pedals where it fits...basically everywhere but the heater wires as it's kind of expensive for powering the heaters. It's pure copper, no plating, kind of a cross between stranded and solid. It's 7 strands of various gauges, optimised in some way for audio.

[funkmeblue]

I'll give it a try, thanks

[Structo]

so, not all.....where can I find some that is not?

http://angela.com/kimbertcsshookupwireonefoot.aspx

Good stuff!

Man, $.90 / ft!

Way too high for me.

[Ken Moon]

And what is the sonic benefit of "pure copper" ?

As far as the variable strand sizes, I'm guessing the high frequencies are supposed to jump into the little teeny strands, and bass notes into the big fat strands, in the same wire (!), so they all reach their destination at the same time, or they're happier when they get there, because they didn't have to share their strands.

Or something like that...

[rp]

Never realized the stuff I was using from Bulk Wire was actually silver plated not tin. Next rolls will be from the links to the aircraft wire. Every time I played around with hi-fi stuff it's made for a disappointing amp - some times ok here and there, but never try silvered wire, silver solder, metal films and expensive caps - ugh, I even ruined several lovely Dynaco amps this way. I'm sure you can design around it but I'm not good enough so with old circuits I stick to cheap parts. I have some thicker Teflon non plated that I now recall is Kimber, a bit to heavy to work with for me, I like 22. The one downside with Teflon (also it's production is seriously bad for the environment) is that it can rattle against the chassis, soft pvc or cloth is quieter, but Teflon is so much easier to solder pretty, and... re-solder and re-solder...

As for mixed size strands passing different frequencies like a magic crossover, I once read a comment by a high-end-hi-fi skeptic regarding such a claim at a CES show, he dared the rep to strip out of his wire the thin strands that 'only pass the high freqs' and connect then to an ac plug, plug it in and grab one in each hand and see if they block the 60hz from the wall. I'm a hi-end hifi guy too but guitar and hifi amps don't share much and fancy wire really is audio jewelry. I'd use pvc if I knew I'd never have to go back in the amp.

[xtian]

As for mixed size strands passing different frequencies like a magic crossover...

I like the experiment that compared $100 Monster Cable versus wire coat hanger:

http://consumerist.com/2008/03/do-coat- ... ables.html

[Jackie Treehorn]

As for mixed size strands passing different frequencies like a magic crossover, I once read a comment by a high-end-hi-fi skeptic regarding such a claim at a CES show, he dared the rep to strip out of his wire the thin strands that 'only pass the high freqs' and connect then to an ac plug, plug it in and grab one in each hand and see if they block the 60hz from the wall. I'm a hi-end hifi guy too but guitar and hifi amps don't share much and fancy wire really is audio jewelry. I'd use pvc if I knew I'd never have to go back in the amp.

That's not salient to Kimber's point, though; they are not saying it's all or nothing. Of course with one conductor all frequencies will go through it. They are trying to optimize the conductors when used together.

There's a good portion of people on the Internet who claim skin effect, conductor quality, dielectrics etc has no effect at audio frequencies. However, I've found products like the Kimber wire which take those considerations into their design give better results.

[rp]

I actually like Kimber the best of the designer wire co's. Their 8TC was the first quality speaker wire I tried 20 years ago and it was jaw dropping better then the heavy monster zip I had before. I have respect for the simpler kimber stuff - 4 & 8 TC and PBJ (great) and KCAG, though I have my doubts about silver anything, and it's my one sure recommendation to people looking for a step up that's free of bs (I do this for a living, installer not sales thank God). Later kimber got into the butched-up +$100 a foot nonsense like all the others but at least they don't have 2lb magic boxes or batteries built into their wires. Funny, I worked for a retailer that would stick $1000 worth of monster on a $3k system built around a Marantz AVR and later for a custom HT place that would wire $250k systems with Liberty. I'm worn down and stopped caring. At home I'm a happy flat earther - Linn, Naim, Spendor. Naim's wire is some sort of Romex at $5ft - hurray, though now they too offer extra expensive cables (can you say dealer pressure?) I did the fancy parts inside guitar amps thing looking for a unique sound, and found it was a big waste of $ and except for a small parameter here and there always made things worse - YMMV.