[SiBurning]

If you're really worried about the sound of solder you should be making a physical connection between parts or between the parts and wire or pc board. Relying on solder for an electrical connection not only adds an additional joint, but an additional, comparatively lower resistance run of material to the circuit. Since it's quite impractical to make solid contact of a wire to pc board, you really should be building everything point to point. In either case, you still want to use solder to act as a coating and mating material to enhance the contact and protect the joint from corrosion.

 For whisker worriers, use a solder with at least 2% lead and dip or flow all of the leads on all your parts in this solder, as well as any pc board traces. Parts are typically tin plated, and plain tin is the worst whisker offender. Since gold, silver, and zinc all grow whiskers, so you should flow those, too. (But see below about gold--better to just stay away.)
 
Heck, everyone should be dipping and flowing.

If you want to stick with simple soldering, consider a doped solder, such as eutectic 62.5:36.1:1.5 tin/lead/silver which has a melting slightly below 63:37. The inclusion of silver makes this a good choice for bonding with silver plated parts. Although there's been no independent verification, Cardas Quad Eutectic is at least claimed to have a better ability to bond with copper as well as silver, and a melting point only slightly higher than 63:37. Don't even try to solder gold pated parts. If you're lucky, the plating is thin enough to melt into the tin, but if it's thick or you don't let it melt and flow, you have a terrible joint.

   Finally, you should really be cleaning the oxides off your traces and leads as well as inside any through holes just before soldering. The practical way to handle this is to burn it off by using extra resin. Any uncoated parts (e.g. copper) should be first washed in acid, including wire.

Going off into the deep end, it might be worth taking a different approach by experimenting with solder joints that have some of these faults or other less desirable conditions. They might require additional maintenance, and even cause total system failure, but the might sound better, and that's all that really matters in the end.
 
This might all be a bit extreme for most people. It's not intended as a general recommendation for the typical hobbyist. 

 

[ahmadmfz]

Can't believe solder made a difference in sound =.=

 

[TheGomdoRi]

Like what iPodPJ mentioned, wouldn't the solder joint matter more? Getting a solid/clean connection with the solder. I wouldn't really know if solder would affect sound just been using normal radioshack ones that are lead-free.

 

[bertchai]

Quote:

As long as the cable is constructed well, I can't tell the difference between cables.
 

well......
I am giving up in this thread......
 
it is not necessary that expensive wire or solder give you absolutely better sound, or cheap solder or cable give you bad sound.  But if you can't tell the difference,  then you are a lucky person.  You save a lot of time and a bit of money.
 
 

 

[akgfan]

The problem is, your ears can play tricks on you. Sometimes I hear the same amp and headphones differently if I came from noisy environment or didn't sleep well. Sometimes bassy, balanced or with more treble.
 
Well, you can use "better" and surely more expensive solder, but you use copper PCB? Why not silver or gold? And still, do semiconductors and other parts have good internal connection?
 
I had some green eco stuff solder without lead and didn't like it because it was a bit weird to solder with it. I have now czech solder 63/37 0,6mm. I think that fine solder is better, because you can make a solder point quicker. I have also very old solder with lot of lead and I'm not able to solder good with it and don't trust my joints, so I use it just for prototyping. The funny thing is, we have a few kilos of this solder!
 
I know that you should use materials as better as possible, but there must be some point when you realise that it doesn't matter anymore.

 

[High_Q]

 

[IPodPJ]

Quote:

well......
I am giving up in this thread......
 
it is not necessary that expensive wire or solder give you absolutely better sound, or cheap solder or cable give you bad sound.  But if you can't tell the difference,  then you are a lucky person.  You save a lot of time and a bit of money.
 
 

Some of us do feel that cables make a difference, but you are talking about different issues there, such as the length of the wire and how the cable is made which affects resistance, capacitance and inductance.  A solder joint would only add the tiniest bit of resistance, and it would be an immeasurable amount, unless you plan on making solder bridges that are several inches long.
 
And how do you really know anyway if the solder is making a difference?  Have you built two of the exact same things using all the same parts with the only difference being the solder, and compared them side by side?  If you haven't even done that than this entire thread is null and void.  Then once you've done that, take some hard measurements and if everything reads the same it's all in your head.  Placebo is a hard thing to get past, but once you at least concede that there might not really be any differences other than what your brain wants there to be you've taken a giant leap forward in this hobby.

 

[leeperry]

I like the 4% silver ViaBlue: http://viablue.de/com/silver_solder_wire.shtml
 
and of course cardas eutectic to solder opamps, due to its low melting point.

 

[Danthrax]

There is no difference between solder it just makes you feel better that you used something more expensive than what other people use. Cable makes a bigger difference because the gauge actually matters and allows for more current to flow. And even then it probably doesn't matter, you can use a metal clothes hanger for interconnects and you probably won't be able to tell the difference in a blind study. Thinking like this is what allows Monster to stay in business with their $100 HDMI cables. It makes no difference.

 

[sokolov91]

Other than physical connections, the only difference between solders is how you personally perceive them. If you convince yourself the cheapest solder is the best sounding one, it will. The reality is they all sound the same.
 
Positive perception = good sound.
 
Negative perception =  bad sound.
 
It is very simple really.
 
The fact you are presumably worrying about the quality of your solder for sonics beyond physical connections probably means you have a high chance of falling for placebo.
 
It is not cost effective or beneficial to worry about such things and you will derive greater pleasure if you simply don't let them worry you.
 
Music is for enjoyment - don't invent problems.
 
That being said, the higher the silver content, the harder the solder is to work with and I believe the higher the temp has to be too (could be wrong didn't double check) and if that is the case you are more likely to cause damage to components. Use cheap, easy to use solder.

 

[SiBurning]

It's not as simple as how much silver. I posted a table of solder melting temperatures for some solders.

 

[Danthrax]

This thread is still open why?

 

[TheLaw]

Just get Kester 44 (63/37). Stuff is sooo good. I don't know about sound, but it doesn't matter.

 

[HiGHFLYiN9]

Why not make an interconnect that runs through a breadboard with 20 joints of a particular type of solder, then compare it with another that was made the same way with another type of solder. Since the signal would be routed through the solder 20 times, one would think that if there was a sonic difference, it would be noticeable in such a situation.
 
If I didn't have 9 projects sitting on the shelf waiting to be built, I might try it

 

[Uncle Erik]

bertchai, some things make a difference and some do not. If you want to be open-minded, you have to consider the possibility that some things might not make a difference. I haven't seen any evidence that solder makes a sonic difference. But if something concrete shows up, I will change my mind.

The human mind is a funny thing. If you go in expecting to find a difference, you will find one. Control for expectation and you might be surprised at the results. That doesn't mean that testing is bad, it can also mean that you're playing tricks on yourself. Look at a few optical illusions and you should realize that perception does not necessarily equate to reality.

Just curious, how closely do you match components? A 10% variation is pretty standard. If on the left channel you find a 100 Ohm resistor to measure 96 Ohms and on the right 101 Ohms, can you hear the difference? That causes a real, actual channel imbalance that is measurable with common test gear. If you're not hearing a difference between channels - especially a measurable difference - then how likely is it that you can hear an unmeasurable difference?