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Don't bend your wires, don't touch them at all!

post #1 of 19
4/18/11 at 12:35pm
Thread Starter 

Cold working copper to 1% strain reduces conductivity by a factor of 100.


Edited by cegras - 4/18/11 at 12:36pm
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post #2 of 19
4/18/11 at 12:39pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by cegras View Post

Cold working your interconnects can reduce conductivity by 2 to 3 times.



Yup.

 

Creates dislocations in the crystal lattice which reduces the electron mean free path and hence reduces conductivity.

 

You can always re-anneal the wire, but the insulation won't like it much. biggrin.gif

 

se

 

 

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post #3 of 19
4/18/11 at 1:33pm

And how does this affect the sound?


 

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post #4 of 19
4/18/11 at 1:36pm

Quote:
Originally Posted by rroseperry View Post

And how does this affect the sound?


 


You lose bass by a factor of 100, duh.

 

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post #5 of 19
4/18/11 at 1:50pm

^ <snort>


 

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post #6 of 19
4/18/11 at 4:55pm
I can now see companies marketing completely inflexible "cable" for millions.
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post #7 of 19
4/18/11 at 5:24pm
Thread Starter 

I don't know, actually. But I remember how people were distinguishing between different elemental platings on connectors, which amounted to distinguishing the difference in the Fermi surface of a material ... and this is probably masked by the amount of bending and twisting you do to a cable when you move it around in between listening.

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post #8 of 19
4/18/11 at 8:38pm

You aren't really plastically deforming the Cu unless you bend the cable quite a bit. Therefore you aren't creating any dislocations.

 

Considering you are using drawn wire, there are already a massive amount of dislocations present, not to mention the low stacking fault energy of Cu, which gives it a huge propensity for twinning. smily_headphones1.gif

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post #9 of 19
4/18/11 at 9:01pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by cegras View Post

Cold working copper to 1% strain reduces conductivity by a factor of 100.



And I'm not sure where you are getting that info, but between coarse grained Cu and nanocrystalline Cu there is about an order of magnitude difference in the conductivity, not 2.

 

Just look at this paper about differences in conductivity due to twinning in nanocrystalline Cu

 

http://www.synl.ac.cn/org/mat/llu/PDF/japchen201006010686.pdf

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post #10 of 19
4/18/11 at 9:28pm

How much bending causes a problem?

 

Is coiling a headphone cable considered bending.

 

 


Edited by upstateguy - 4/18/11 at 9:29pm
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post #11 of 19
4/18/11 at 9:37pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by SalsaPodio View Post





And I'm not sure where you are getting that info, but between coarse grained Cu and nanocrystalline Cu there is about an order of magnitude difference in the conductivity, not 2.

 

Just look at this paper about differences in conductivity due to twinning in nanocrystalline Cu

 

http://www.synl.ac.cn/org/mat/llu/PDF/japchen201006010686.pdf


lol, he was joking

 

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post #12 of 19
4/18/11 at 11:36pm
It could be urban legend, but I have heard of people replacing speaker cables after they were accidentally stepped on.
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post #13 of 19
4/18/11 at 11:40pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Uncle Erik View Post

It could be urban legend, but I have heard of people replacing speaker cables after they were accidentally stepped on.


OH MY GOD YOU STEPPED ON MY PRECIOUS CABLE

 

YOU STEPPED ON IT

 

...YOU BASTARD, NOW I HAVE TO SPEND ANOTHER 50 GRAND ON NEW ONES

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post #14 of 19
4/19/11 at 12:11am
Quote:
Originally Posted by SalsaPodio View Post
Considering you are using drawn wire, there are already a massive amount of dislocations present...


Only if you buy it "as drawn."

 

Otherwise, most all of the electrical grade copper wire out there has been annealed.

 

se

 

 

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post #15 of 19
4/19/11 at 1:56am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Steve Eddy View Post

Creates dislocations in the crystal lattice which reduces the electron mean free path and hence reduces conductivity.

Shut-up-and-take-my-money.jpg
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