[cegras]

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

 

[Steve Eddy]

Quote:

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.

 
se
 
 

 

[rroseperry]

And how does this affect the sound?

 

 

[DouglasQuaid]

Quote:

And how does this affect the sound?

 

You lose bass by a factor of 100, duh.
 

 

[rroseperry]

^ <snort>

 

 

[revolink24]

I can now see companies marketing completely inflexible "cable" for millions.

 

[cegras]

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.

 

[SalsaPodio]

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. 

 

[SalsaPodio]

Quote:

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

 

[upstateguy]

How much bending causes a problem?
 
Is coiling a headphone cable considered bending.
 
 

 

[BobSaysHi]

Quote:

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
 

 

[Uncle Erik]

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

 

[DaBomb77766]

Quote:

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 person, NOW I HAVE TO SPEND ANOTHER 50 GRAND ON NEW ONES

 

[Steve Eddy]

Quote:

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
 
 

 

[inarc]

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