Opinion about what type of wiring to use in amp construction

[Michael415]

Well as you might of guessed this post has a question about internal wiring of a tube amp. I am starting to put together the materials to build a Cavalli-Jones Headphone Amplifier and came to the part of internal wiring...
Looking to get some high end internal wires but the more I read the more I get confused to be honest. Silver, copper, number of strands, solid, magnet, etc etc etc.
A bit of background I really enjoy the sound bright, and the source is a arcam diva cd73. This amp will mostly be used with jazz, blues, classical, and acoustic music played through dt880's or grado 325i

I guess my real question is am I obessing over something I really wont notice a difference on or is there something I should be keeping away from? I was thinkin about Vampire wire 22 gauge, pure silver premium internal hook up wire. It has 7/30 stranding, PE insulation. I have noticed though a few have been built using 21 gauge, Continuous Cast Copper premium internal hook up magnet wire but it seems to be becoming harder to find.

 

[FallenAngel]

From what I heard, the differences between different types of hookup wire inside the amp is very minimal.

Personally, I've tried Cardas, Pure Silver, 24 and 22AWG SPC. Placebo aside, I couldn't tell much difference between the Cardas and SPC, but with silver, it did sound a little better to me. Yes, it's a bad term to describe sound, but I just liked the sound more in every way.

You mentioned stranded pure silver wire in your post, can you tell me where you can get it, I've never seen it before.

I do think that since the internal wiring doesn't need to be very flexible, you can easily go with solid core and maybe get that marginally better transfer properties from it vs stranded.

 

[dsavitsk]

Use solid core inside a tube amp. Not for any sonic benefit, but because it is stiff, stays put, and in point to point applications is easier to work with. My favorite is the Welborne 18g as it is a good size, easy to strip, and the insulation does not melt with high heat. http://www.welbornelabs.com/wlabswire.htm

 

[Michael415]

Quote:

Originally Posted by FallenAngel You mentioned stranded pure silver wire in your post, can you tell me where you can get it, I've never seen it before.

Yes, Vampire wire sells it @ $5/foot
Part #SL-22, 22 gauge, pure silver premium internal hook up wire. It has 7/30 stranding, PE insulation and is available in red and white only.

 

[bperboy]

I use plain RatShack hookup wire, solid 22ga. in all my projects!

 

[nikongod]

use stranded wire where it will be flexxed all the time. otherwise use solid.

insiude the amp, i would say select the size of the wire based on where it is.

bigger stuff for psu lines, smaller stuff for input side/between integrated pre&power amp stages and bigger stuf for the oputput of the amp.

i would say probably not larger than 20ga ANYWHERE unless this is to be used for speakers as well as headphones.

 

[jarthel]

dhlabs chassis wire 18ga at 50c/foot at pcx.

you could get cardas too but costlier. percy has more choices

 

[Garbz]

Any resonably good copper wire will do. Take care with transformers though. I've used plain copper hookup wire for most of my internal connections except in a 500watt poweramp where the cable picked up inductive noise. In this case I went for shielded microphone cable.

 

[PinkFloyd]

Mains cable is good.