Quote:
Originally Posted by [AK]Zip
Unless this amp is built point to point there is no reason in changing out wires. The traces on the PCB board are copper. If the amp is point to point then go for it and change out the wires.
-Alex-
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It is point-to-point
Quote:
Originally Posted by nikongod
i agree with the big q, what amp is it?
assuming you have not already:
can you upgrade the caps first? can you upgrade resistors? volume pot? those 3 things typpicallly have a MUCH more significant effect on the "sound" of an amp than its wiring.
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Ming Da MC-3R (preamp). Resistors and caps will be done at the same time as wiring. Would like to replace the pot with a stepped attenuator also, but I dont know enough about them (yet)
Ming Da MC-300D (power amp). No internal photo here, sorry.. same deal as above (except that power amps obviously lack pots)
Quote:
Originally Posted by MASantos
To say that silver is better than copper just like that is not true. It depends of factors such as wire quality and fabrication method, dialectric, etc etc.
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Good silver is always better than good copper though, right?
Quote:
Originally Posted by MASantos
If you don't change every bit of copper wire you'll always have a bottle neck somewhere right?
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But it's better to change some then none isn't it? Or else every person who changes any of their cables is being foolish because they haven't changed every single wire in their system
(oh, wait.. i just realised that this is precicely WHY i think cable people are foolish..)
Quote:
Originally Posted by Francis_Vaughan
You really need to ask yourself why you think there is any reason that changing the wire will make any difference. What physics is involved? If you want a better conductor, why not use thicker copper? If the silver wire is even one wire gauge thinner than the copper it replaces it will have higher resistance. The solder you use has 10 times the resistivity of silver (even if you use silver bearing solder it is still at least 6 times worse)
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Hm I hadn't thought of that. The idea is simply to replace the wire with better wire. I suppose that the thing is, whenever I see people upgrading cables and etc, I always think "yeah, but the inside of the amp is still all cheap copper...", so I guess to solve this, I'd like to make mine all silver.. and also just for fun
Quote:
Originally Posted by Francis_Vaughan
the gold (if it is still used) inside the IC packages is worse than copper, and insanely thin. Many components use aluminium, tin, sometimes steel internally, and most of all - the resistors, well they are designed to have big resistances - that is the point. Would you be interested in replacing all the resistors in an amp with ones with silver leads? Inside the semiconductors, and especially the ICs, the conductors are made from thin films of aluminium and possibly of doped silicon.
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They are tube amps, so no semi conductors, gold, aluminium, steel or tin is used to my knowledge.. except possibly the connectors on the tube sockets? I'm not sure about that one.. The resistor leads are all copper to my knowledge.
I suppose the idea is that it's better to have, for example, 1 meter of silver and half a meter of copper, than 1.5 meters of copper. Even though there will still be copper in my system, the whole system wouldn't have as much electrical resistance as it would if it was all copper
Also, I'm not expecting it to be a "day and night" difference at all. It's just that I know that I will eventually open them up to replace the resistors, caps and pots, so I'm wondering if i should order some silver wire while I'm at it..
If it's an entirely stupid idea, let me know. If it's likely to have *some* (minute) positive effect, then I may as well do it because I enjoy tweaking things and it wont cost much
Thanks for the replies so far