{"id":296,"date":"2011-02-16T23:32:43","date_gmt":"2011-02-16T21:32:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ruthtrumpold.id.au\/blogs\/designtech\/?p=296"},"modified":"2011-02-16T23:32:43","modified_gmt":"2011-02-16T21:32:43","slug":"audiophile-cables","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ruthtrumpold.id.au\/blogs\/designtech\/2011\/02\/16\/audiophile-cables\/","title":{"rendered":"Audiophile Cables"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
iPod Line-out-Dock with braided Copper wires<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In the world of audiophiles, wires play a big role in sound quality. Wires are simply used to create an electric connection between two audio equipment, so an average person may think that as long as the wire can transfer an electrical current, all of them are the same. However, wires for audiophiles are essential for audiophiles because they alter the sound quality of their equipment.<\/p>\n

There are three major materials used in wires: copper, silver, and gold. Copper is the cheapest of the three types of wires. Copper also has the second lowest resistance of the three, so it is widely used in interconnects. On the other hand, Silver is more expensive than Copper. Silver also has the lowest resistance of the three, so the electrical signals would be more \u201cpure\u201d than that of copper wires. Due to the high price of silver, there are silver coated copper wires that are cheaper than pure silver wires. Finally, gold has the lowest resistance of the three. However, gold is the most nonreactive of the three; it does not oxidise easily. As a result, a thin layer of gold is used in the ends of interconnects were the metal is exposed to air the most. Copper wires are said to give a \u201cwarm\u201d sound whereas silver wires are deemed to be more \u201ctransparent\u201d and \u201cbrighter\u201d.<\/p>\n

Wires can be either solid core or stranded. Solid core wires tend to be less flexible, but they are known to be better in sound quality.\u00a0Due to their stiffness, solid core wires tend to be used in short interconnects. Another downside of long solid core wires is that they act as antennas that catch RF (radio frequency) signals, which affects the electrical signals. Stranded wires, on the other\u00a0hand, are more flexible, so they are used in longer interconnects. Also, because the wires are stranded, they are less affected by RF signals due to its high damping properties.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Solid silver wire with insulation and sleeves<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Another important aspect in wires is the insulation. Plastics, such as PET and Teflon, are widely used to insulate the wires. In earphones, where the wires are thin, enameled wires are used to insulate the wires from each other. Enameled wires are wires with a thin coat of insulation (usually a plastic). On the other hand, thicker wires use tubes of plastics to insulate from each other. Plastic is used for three main reasons: they are flexible, good insulators, and cheap. Another type of insulation used is cotton. Cotton is mainly used so that the physical vibrations of the wires do not create noise. Also, cotton has a low dielectric constant, meaning that there is be less capacitance between wires. However, cotton cannot prevent oxygen from reacting with the wires, so a tube of plastic or rubber is usually used to enclose the wires. Although not an insulator, a metal sleeve is used to prevent the wires from being affected by RF signals and EMI (electromagnetic induction). This too allows the signals in the wires to be more pure and clean. Similarly, wires are usually braided for the same reasons, lessening the effects of RF signals and EMI.<\/p>\n

There are several more modifications that can be done on wires such as cryo-treatment, which I will not go into. Most people cannot distinguish silver wires from copper wires from simply listening to them. However, there is a minor group of audiophiles who care about these minor details for their music experience and invest large amounts of money for this.<\/p>\n

Images:<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.aloaudio.com\/store\/images\/OCC_TP2.jpg<\/p>\n

http:\/\/i48.photobucket.com\/albums\/f232\/hoosterw\/audio_cable_single_core_red_on_blac.jpg<\/p>\n

Reference:<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.head-fi.org<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the world of audiophiles, wires play a big role in sound quality. Wires are simply used to create an electric connection between two audio equipment, so an average person may think that as long as the wire can transfer an electrical current, all of them are the same. However, wires for audiophiles are essential […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-296","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ruthtrumpold.id.au\/blogs\/designtech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ruthtrumpold.id.au\/blogs\/designtech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ruthtrumpold.id.au\/blogs\/designtech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ruthtrumpold.id.au\/blogs\/designtech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ruthtrumpold.id.au\/blogs\/designtech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=296"}],"version-history":[{"count":41,"href":"https:\/\/ruthtrumpold.id.au\/blogs\/designtech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":337,"href":"https:\/\/ruthtrumpold.id.au\/blogs\/designtech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296\/revisions\/337"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ruthtrumpold.id.au\/blogs\/designtech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ruthtrumpold.id.au\/blogs\/designtech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=296"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ruthtrumpold.id.au\/blogs\/designtech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}