Cotton insulated copper wires? Why?

I think cotton is great to kill microphonics

I think he means that cables (ie in headphones) can carry (physically) vibrations into the earcups/eartips during normal activities like walking, much like a tin-can telephone. Thus, cotton-insulated cables would work great for making custom IEM recables.

cotton has lower dielectric coefficient than other insulating material, say, teflon, resulting lower capacitance between wires.

yes but cotton is not airtight, the copper would oxidate, wouldn´t it?

I thought cotton was there to help prevent crushing and for strength, particularly in studio applications. 

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Originally Posted by AudioCats 

cotton has lower dielectric coefficient than other insulating material, say, teflon, resulting lower capacitance between wires.

Ah so that's one reason. Thanks for sharing. 

 

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Originally Posted by Dr No 

yes but cotton is not airtight, the copper would oxidate, wouldn´t it?

You would put that over the plastic or whatever you're originally using to cover the wires. Then you would put the copper over that for protection and all of that other good stuff. 

Kind of like a seat cover over a car seat. The cover is already there but the seat cover gives extra comfort and whatnot. 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dr No 

yes but cotton is not airtight, the copper would oxidate, wouldn´t it?

Oxidize!

Sorry... I'm a chemist and couldn't help myself!

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Originally Posted by High_Q 

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How would that effect the signal transfer?
 

For interconnects, it would raise the corner frequency of the low pass RC filter.  

Meaning that where moderate-length interconnects in a normal system would roll off the 'highs' somewhere around 50khz to 500khz, a identical cable made with a cotton dielectric would roll off the highs maybe around 70khz to 700khz.  Normally well beyond the audible range unless you start using 30 feet lengths of radioshack cable.

It boggles me why audiophiles would use this stuff.  You can achieve a lower capacitance by simply increasing the distance between conductors(or shield), decreasing the conductor size, using a thicker insulator, or decreasing the cable length..  You can do all this without sacrificing the conductor.

For headphone/speaker cables, capacitance hardly ever matters.. the Fc is usually 100 to 10000x that of a interconnect.

Cotton makes for good linen and casual wear... not for insulating copper conductors.

If you want to reduce microphonics, at least put the cotton over an insulated conductor.

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Originally Posted by JamesL 

Cotton makes for good linen and casual wear...

Linen is made from flax

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Originally Posted by JamesL 

 

It boggles me why audiophiles would use this stuff.  You can achieve a lower capacitance by simply increasing the distance between conductors(or shield), decreasing the conductor size, using a thicker insulator, or decreasing the cable length..  You can do all this without sacrificing the conductor.

 

Don't forget it has a more organic sound (whatever that means) 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Young Spade 

Ah so that's one reason. Thanks for sharing. 

 

You would put that over the plastic or whatever you're originally using to cover the wires. Then you would put the copper over that for protection and all of that other good stuff. 

 

Kind of like a seat cover over a car seat. The cover is already there but the seat cover gives extra comfort and whatnot. 

I assumed the cotton would be the only dielectric, since that is what I have seen been done: copper then cotton. No other material was ud´sed on those ICs.
 

Quote:

Originally Posted by sampson_smith 

Oxidize!

 

Sorry... I'm a chemist and couldn't help myself!

English is not my first language, so excuuuse mee.