How cool would it be if superconducting cables were feasible?
Oct 30, 2008 at 2:59 PM Thread Starter Post #1 of 8

tintin47

Headphoneus Supremus
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This is just on my mind, as I am working in a physics lab at the moment dealing with superconductors and electrical conductivity. We are using both gold, copper and superconducting connections and the difference in conductivity is shocking. I just keep thinking about how neat it would be to have superconducting cables for my phones... Perfect transmission of the signal.

Sorry about the randomness of this thread, and I am not sure that it is in the correct area, so tell me if it needs to be moved or restarted elsewhere.
 
Oct 30, 2008 at 3:09 PM Post #2 of 8
How cool would it be? Somewhere around -440 degrees F, I'm guessing.
 
Oct 30, 2008 at 3:12 PM Post #3 of 8
Quote:

Originally Posted by TopPop /img/forum/go_quote.gif
How cool would it be? Somewhere around -440 degrees F, I'm guessing.


Your headphone cables would require a liquid N2 valve and probably be very heavy.
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Oct 30, 2008 at 3:18 PM Post #5 of 8
Quote:

Originally Posted by TopPop /img/forum/go_quote.gif
How cool would it be? Somewhere around -440 degrees F, I'm guessing.


Lol. Hardly. There are much more realistic superconductors now. You only need to get things down to about -170 F. Much easier. It probably wouldn't be a very portable rig, with all of the liquid N2 or the such you'd need to cool it. It would, however, be the ultimate audiophile upgrade. It would be awesome to go to someone's house and see nitrogen tanks cooling their cables.
 
Oct 30, 2008 at 3:21 PM Post #6 of 8
Quote:

Originally Posted by pataburd /img/forum/go_quote.gif
The next best thing, meanwhile, might be the mono-crystal OCC copper/silver. : )


You are correct. Or solid Au or Pt cables would be nice, also. I would think that there would might be a demand issue from the price tho. Seriously though, the copper/silver cables sound like they'd be wonderful.
 
Oct 30, 2008 at 3:37 PM Post #7 of 8
Using oxygen is a terrible idea and a recipe for disaster. I'm guessing something inert like nitrogen would be more likely.

Edit: Also, it'd be fun as a science experiment, but I doubt it would make much of a difference at all.
 
Oct 30, 2008 at 3:45 PM Post #8 of 8
Quote:

Originally Posted by mypasswordis /img/forum/go_quote.gif
Using oxygen is a terrible idea and a recipe for disaster. I'm guessing something inert like nitrogen would be more likely.

Edit: Also, it'd be fun as a science experiment, but I doubt it would make much of a difference at all.



I miss typed. I meant nitrogen. wasn't thinking. Oxygen is definitely used to cool things, you'd just have to make sure it didn't evaporate too much. I guess it probably would be a bad idea to cool electrical equipment with it tho.
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The cable upgrades we have now are basically varying degrees of copper. Do you think that if people can tell the difference between 99.9 Cu and 99.9999 Cu that there wouldn't be a huge difference in switching to a material with NO electrical resistance? But I also agree. It would be an awesome science experiment though.
 

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