How important is ground quality in cables?

[hugz]

Hey all

i'm considering buying some silver wire and making myself a silver cable for my headphones.

However, to save money I'm considering using silver wire for signal, and copper wire for ground.

Is this a good or bad idea? Is the quality of wire used in the ground very important, or does it simply have to be good enough to carry the signal away? I figure that it's important to carefully carry the signal TO the drivers (via silver wire), but once that's been done well, you can dump the signal any old way (copper). However, I'm also a little worried that using copper ground may cause some kind of bottleneck

Advice?

 

[BlazerFRS]

Since audio signals are AC, it's tough (or maybe just wrong) to say the signal goes up one cable to the speaker and comes down another. I think all the conductors are equally important, but that being said it may be a good way to try silver wire and save some $$. you can always change them later...

 

[hugz]

Quote:

Originally Posted by BlazerFRS Since audio signals are AC, it's tough

Doh. Off to a bad start :/

I was looking over at headphile and noticed this though (talking about blackmax cable):

Quote:

Uses both fine 99.99% silver and copper magnet wire for the signal (not silver plated copper), and the BlackCoral ground return

So it uses silver and copper for signal (can anyone explain to me how 2 different types of wire are used for signal like this), and copper for ground. This sounds more or less like the same idea of what i was considering.

 

[Jon L]

Quote:

Originally Posted by hugz Doh. Off to a bad start :/ I was looking over at headphile and noticed this though (talking about blackmax cable): So it uses silver and copper for signal (can anyone explain to me how 2 different types of wire are used for signal like this), and copper for ground. This sounds more or less like the same idea of what i was considering.

Both wires are important, and one can't skimp on either. Many companies use different metals in one signal leg. One can twist copper and silver wire together and use the whole thing for one signal leg, for example.

Using silver for signal and copper for return will sound different from copper for signal, silver for return, but one can't say for sure one way will intrinsically sound "better." It's a bit like cooking, and if you are willing to spend a lot of time to experiment, it's possible to come up with a sound you like.

But since the chances of getting not-so-great sound is higher with mixing and matching, I tend to prefer just using the same metal for both signal and return if possible.

 

[Emon]

Resistance makes a different on either side of the circuit. If you have a resistor and an LED in series with a 12v supply and switch the LED and resistor, the effect is the same.

Now can you tell the difference? I have no clue. But do keep in mind that electricity actually flows from negative to positive (they thought it was positive to negative before electrons were discovered), so it's actually going through the ground and out the signal. It wouldn't matter which way it goes, but just putting it into a perspective so you can understand that resistance on both sides matters.

 

[pho_boi]

Quote:

Originally Posted by BlazerFRS Since audio signals are AC.....

I've always thought audio signal was DC and not AC..... can someone confirm this?

{EDIT} just looked it up in my text book and yeh it says it consists of an AC current.

 

[robzy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by pho_boi I've always thought audio signal was DC and not AC..... can someone confirm this? {EDIT} just looked it up in my text book and yeh it says it consists of an AC current.

Absolutely no offense intended, but you really should go and research audio some more

Rob.

 

[arspy87]

EDIT: never mind, I'm bad at explaining things. Let me start over with stuff I /do/ know...

In any case, as said before, audio signals do indeed use alternating current, so I'd take a guess that the ground wire does matter.

...and I'm going to be an EE major soon...

 

[mono]

The ground wire is every bit as important as the signal. In fact they are both signal in a looser sense, any bottleneck or effect of one does effect the whole, just as it would effect the whole if you put a resistor or capacitor in series with the ground.