What's wrong with using solid-core conductors?

[Joe Bloggs]

Man... I'm sick and tired of trying to weld stranded conductors to miniplugs. Yesterday I was trying to weld SPEAKER WIRE to a female miniplug (for my speaker amp to headphone project), idiot that I am...

Well there wasn't anything more horrible than that.

I guess I have to use small gauge wire on the plug side... but really, it's just gonna break once I wire together the resistor network and it starts weighing on the wires.

I got the idea of lengthening the contacts on the miniplug with solid wire, to ease soldering, then I thought--why not just get solid wire for wiring the whole thing?

 

[antness]

After twisting the stranded wire together as tightly as possible, you could put some solder on the wire to hold all the conductors together, then solder the whole thing to the plug

 

[Ctn]

Joe, isnt solid core suppose to sound better than stranded??

Solid core is just stiffer and harder to handle.

 

[Wodgy]

No, it's usually the other way around. Conductors have something called the 'skin effect', where most of the current flows along the outer rim of the conductor. By using stranded conductors, you take advantage of this effect, since each strand has a skin.

There are arguments the other way too though...

 

[PinkFloyd]

In my days of doing some pretty serious study into speaker cables I found that solid core is great for bass and stranded better for the mid / hi frequencies.

The best sounding cable I ever made was a hybrid solid core / stranded cable which consisted of a centre core 2.5mm solid with a twisted 124 strand outer core.

When I made speakers I always wired the bass units with solid core and the tweeters with Stranded. If Biwiring I would run a solid to the bass and a stranded to the HF.

If you're not biwiring then a hybrid cable gives you the best results all round.... Cable is a "black art" and really is pot luck... if in doubt try some 6mm cooker cable and I'm sure you won't be far off the mark.

When terminating plugs with solid core always ensure the joint can't move and is very well supported (use masking tape or if you wan't to be really perverse encase the connection in epoxy resin which has the added benefit of protecting the join from oxidisation and hygroscopic ingression)

****.... it must be Christmas cause I'm drunk

Pinkie

 

[sTaTIx]

The stranded wire I use tends to have its individual strands snap when they're bent a couple times back and forth, because they're so delicate. Is it just my wire or are all standed wires this delicate?

 

[ServinginEcuador]

Quote:

Skin Effects - For many years the industry has talked about a phenomenon that introduces phase problems into frequencies running through a conductor. These phase problems cause the driver to pull and push at the same time, seriously affecting its ability to accurately represent the audio signal. These phenomena are often referred to as 'skin effects'. Solid Core Conductors - Science has proven a regular solid core copper conductor to be superior at representing all frequencies in the audio bandwidth. Skin effects also however especially plague cables using solid core conductors. For that reason, cable designers have tried to circumvent skin effects by using alternative conductors. We believe we found a better solution by combining a solid copper core conductor with Dynamic Filtering.

These are quotes from Virtual Dynamics web site, and since their stuff is pretty much superior to almost anything else made anywhere near the price point, I would lend some credence to what they say.

 

[Wodgy]

Virtual Dynamics are famous for their power cords (high voltage). They're not as universally adored for their interconnects. What Pink Floyd said matches my own experiences pretty well.

Also, keep in mind that the inflexibility of Virtual Dynamics cables isn't because they have a thick solid-core conductor, it's because they're filled with a black gravel-like material.

 

[earthling]

Quote:

Originally posted by Wodgy No, it's usually the other way around. Conductors have something called the 'skin effect', where most of the current flows along the outer rim of the conductor. By using stranded conductors, you take advantage of this effect, since each strand has a skin. There are arguments the other way too though...

Skin effect started off being talked about it in a negative fashion and stranded wire was thought of as causing more problems than solid core wire. The problem is that all of the individual crossing points of all the individual wires in a stranded configuration create cross talk for all of these 'phase altered' (skin effect) connections. Of course there are now those wire gurus who claim to be able to take advantage of skin effect and have optimized architectures which utilize its properties. Never mind that they can neither measure it nor predict it.

Nevertheless. The general consensus seems to be that skin effect is not a good thing. Its not the current that travels along the outside surface of the wire but the higher frequencies and if this is true, then I would fall into the camp that believe in all the cross connection nonsense

I would go with solid conductor every time just for the simple fact that it is easier to spot potential problems, is physically stronger (except in high vibration environments) and easier to work with. It makes sense that it would sound better as well.

 

[Hirsch]

Quote:

Originally posted by Wodgy Also, keep in mind that the inflexibility of Virtual Dynamics cables isn't because they have a thick solid-core conductor, it's because they're filled with a black gravel-like material.

That's the low end of the line. Their higher end cables use a 9.5 gauge solid-core copper conductor.

 

[Joe Bloggs]

Yeah, great...

Now where do I find my solid core cables...

What the heck is 'cooker cable'??

 

[Ctn]

Quote:

Originally posted by Joe Bloggs Yeah, great... Now where do I find my solid core cables... What the heck is 'cooker cable'??

I'm using building wire as suggested by my speaker designer.
It's 2.5mm with 7 x strands of 0.67mm solid copper wire.

Nice and cheap. I cant complain about the sound either.
It sounds better than my "speaker" cable.

Have fun soldering/welding it onto a miniplug though

 

[ServinginEcuador]

Quote:

Originally posted by Joe Bloggs What the heck is 'cooker cable'??

High frequency + high voltage = short burn-in time. These are used to burn-in things like IC and PCs very quickly when compared to the lower freq and amplitude voltages that normally pass thru them. It still take about a day or two to burn them in when installed to remove any static and such, but it reduces break-in time to about 2-3 days versus weeks or even months with power cords.

 

[martioz]

Solid core is better for both IC and speaker cables,
IC as thin as possible, low diameter reduces skin effect.

For speaker cable best would be fine ribbons run side by side not in parallel