DIY HD800 Cables, need some tips and feedback.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Backwardsman 

I'm somewhat worried that the cable will be too stiff, or the conductors being too thick.

These are valid concerns. 

Experiment with less expensive headphones until you are comfortable with the more expensive ones. 

Despite what some may say, it does not take an eight gauge wire (2 actually...) to get 1v from the amp to the headphone. Try 24 or 26. you could even go thinner but durability suffers.

stiffness is going to be cause by the number of strands per conductor as well as the sheathing. The higher the strand count, the more flexible/less microphonic the cable. I think the cotton ought to be fine, depends on how tightly woven it is I suppose. That's why most pro cable companies use polyethelyne for their flexibility (greater than teflon I believe)

You're just going to ask yourself honestly what your priorities are ...are you going for aesthetics over praticality, or perhaps performance above all else? Once you figure that out, the rest should just come to you 

Pure silver doesn't oxidize.

Quote:

Originally Posted by 4L3X 

Pure silver doesn't oxidize.

Please reference source. 

nikongod, your right,  it seems my answer is only partly correct.

wikipedia says:

Silver is stable in pure air and water, but tarnishes when it is exposed to air or water containing ozone or hydrogen sulfide to form a black layer of silver sulfide [...].

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silver)

Quote:

Originally Posted by 4L3X 

nikongod, your right,  it seems my answer is only partly correct.

 

wikipedia says:

Silver is stable in pure air and water, but tarnishes when it is exposed to air or water containing ozone or hydrogen sulfide to form a black layer of silver sulfide [...].

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silver)

 

But there's no harm in it, as with copper it's only impact is visual, which is nicely eliminated by sleeving it in that cotton tube.

well actually you were totally correct, it doesnt oxidize, it sulphurizes ;) but poster above, sorry but you are not correct; copper oxide is BAD for audio, as its not a good conductor and causes serious degradation of the signal and eventually physical properties of the metal, where silver sulphide is still a better conductor than pure fresh copper. 

the OP's proposed cable would be a bit stiff but not over the top. if you must use cotton (silk is actually more flexible) its quite difficult to thread through multifilament nylon techflex, the normal microphonic as hell techflex goes on easy, but not the soft black nylon. unless its quite a bit bigger than the braid. you could add a shield or tefloin tape over the braid to make it easier to thread, but I definitely recommend using 26AWG. 24 is what you have actually 0.5mm is about 24.5AWG

The tarnishing of silver is an oxidizing reaction. Sulfur or oxygen doesn't mater.

Copper oxide is a lousy conductor indeed, but is only limited to the very outermost layer as the tarnish itself hinders further oxidation.

So unless the copper strands are extremely thin, the overall conductivity of the cable only suffers in a minute way. The same applies to silver.

what like stranded copper or fine copper trace for example??..... and as we know the skin effect means that fast signals like to travel on the outer layer of the conductor. not so much in the audio band, but digital or power signals definitely exist in this band

how can a reaction that results in sulphur and not oxide and is caused by sulphur in the air be an oxidizing effect? a tarnishing effect yes, but wouldnt an oxidizing effect naturally need to be a reaction that results in an oxide?

'outermost layers' I've understood to be the outermost atom layers, so we're talking nanometres here. Copper traces would be in the order of microns?

The oxidizing number of silver increases from 0 to 1 (Ag to Ag₂S), hence an oxidation has occurred. 

Oxidation is a bit of a mis-nomer, in the beginning it was believed that only oxygen could cause this kind of reaction.

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