[zzz]

Current owner of the EAR HP4 that I'm buying recommended me to replace Alps Blue pot that is used in there with Alps Black Beauty. Sure, I say, but what if my half-assed soldering job done with the tools in perflab (that are only there to do an occasional quick hack to help bring up a malfunctioning board, some of you working in hardware companies will know what I'm talking about

) negates effects of a better pot? Just wondering.

And yeah, I'm not planning to do this first thing I receive the amp

. I don't know if I'll ever have the guts to do something like that. But I'd still like to know, just in case.

 

[Bobes]

The advice I received when asking this type of question was: Build all your connections so that they don't need solder, then solder them with the highest silver content solder you can find. I find that solder can impact sound quality if it is the only signal path, if through, it only serves to support the signal path, then you'll never hear it!
Bobes

 

[Tomo]

Hello,

The answer is yes. But silver alloy isn't the idea. (It is an issue if the soldering is exposed to outdoors or something.)

Most importantly, "how" you solder make a difference. If you look at your soldering, you should see very shiny looking soldering and a not-so-shiny soldering. Or some might be striated. You must make your soldering completely shiny without any sort of blemish. The no-so-shiny soldering has different conductivity from shiny ones. And sometimes offer very little conductivity; effectively screwing up your amp.

The reason why I say silver alloy isn't the idea is that the above can happen with any solders.

The best solder is as you know like wonder solder and some such. They do use silver, but most importantly melting point is very low. This is good because cooling of solder is shorter, therefore decreasing the chance of getting blemishes in the soldering. In other words, good solder is designed so that you can make "shiny" soldering EASILY. (Conductivity issue is rather secondary compared to that.)

You can make "shiny" soldering with any solders with some know-how. I can't exactly tell you how other than keep the tip immacurate. You just have to get a hang of it.

I use standard ones. Lately I am using silver ones cause, I happened to have a roll. I was testing the idea, but my standard roll ran out and I haven't bought new roll yet. So I ended up only having silver ones. In other words, you don't have to "hustle" to get silver ones. There wasn't much difference if you ask me.

Tomo

P.S. Lookie this:

http://www.kester.com/alloy_temp_chart.html

 

[Toe]

Just how much better is a black beauty than a blue?

 

[Nick Dangerous]

Duuuuude... the Ear HP4 uses an Alps Blue?!? Gotta go DACT or Goldpoint on that one. Stepped attenuation is the way to go for an amp in that class!

 

[zzz]

That's what I was thinking, but I don't know if there's enough space inside of it. SAs tend to get longish...

Will see when it arrives.

 

[aeberbach]

I really like the WBT silver solder but mostly because of the way it flows. Like Tomo says, shiny is more important than composition.

 

[aos]

I have WBT silver solder, and it is a bi**h to use. In fact I had to stop using it with my Weller WT35 as it wouldn't flow at all, wouldn't stick to things, and you'd end up heating and heating stuff trying to make it do it and it wouldn't. When you're trying to solder through-hole parts, you could in the end make the joint (though you were left wondering if it was a good joint), but for SMD soldering it was useless. Only after I got soldering station did it became useful, as I was able to raise the temperature. Considering "silver solder" has only 4% silver, I don't see how could they make much difference. I couldn't hear any myself (not that I did side to side comparison) so I mostly use it just for the piece of mind - unless you solder 8 hours a day the price difference won't kill you.

 

[aeberbach]

OK, with a Weller #7 temperature-controlled tip, WBT solder flows well. A good clean iron is probably the most important thing for a good solder joint.