[evilmerlin]

Or even silver plated copper?

The piece of metal on top is a magnet taken from a harddisk drive.

I guess my question is how pure are silver cables meant for audio use? Should they exhibit any magnetism?

 

[myinitialsaredac]

Oo What?
Err sorry for that.
Silver isn't supposed to be magnetic unless in a magnetic field, even then it only become slightly magnetic....
That said even copper is not magnetic.

So that cable is probably silver plated iron? I couldn't tell you but it may be like 99%iron 1%silver or the like...

Where'd you get that from?

Dave

 

[compuryan]

something in it is probably steel. I doubt it is a high quality cable because steel is only used in the cheaper stuff built for durability. I could be wrong though.

 

[evilmerlin]

It was claimed by the shop that its a silver cable. While I know that silver cables usually are NOT pure silver but usually alloyed with other metals (usually copper?) for ductility, I'm just wondering if the good quality silver cables would have any iron or steel in them.

 

[myinitialsaredac]

I believe they should not, i.e. the big deal of the 99.9999% pure copper, but that is copper. I would believe silver should be the same because you do not want anything polar pulling on the electron stream in your cables....that would be ridiculous.

 

[evilmerlin]

I see, so silver (or copper for that matter) audio cables should not be exhibiting any magnetism then.

 

[myinitialsaredac]

I don't believe so, it would go against logic, especially since they are supposed to be pure (copper anyways). If you ran a current through them technically you could grab em with a magnet (dont try this near ur amp tho =D) if the shielding was bad enough, because the positive pole would pull the negative electrons, again you'd need a darn strong magnet and bad shielded cable.

Cheers
Dave

 

[evilmerlin]

Thanks for the info Dave, much appreciated!

 

[fiiophile]

So, if I'm not wrong, copper can be attracted by magnet?

 

[evilmerlin]

Copper is non-magnetic and thus would not be attracted to the magnet.

 

[Ronald Lee]

Quote:

Originally Posted by fiiophile /img/forum/go_quote.gif So, if I'm not wrong, copper can be attracted by magnet?

yup, copper cannot be attract by a magnet

 

[joshd]

Might have some kind of steel shielding?

 

[moogoob]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ronald Lee /img/forum/go_quote.gif yup, copper cannot be attract by a magnet

Unless, as stated earlier, it had a current driven through it, thus making it an elecromagnet, or was alloyed with something like iron or nickel.

 

[Golden Monkey]

Like the old-school "wrap a wire around a nail and attach it to a 9V battery" elctromagnet...

 

[moogoob]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Golden Monkey /img/forum/go_quote.gif Like the old-school "wrap a wire around a nail and attach it to a 9V battery" elctromagnet...

Pretty much. Or more like the drivers in the headphones that you're listening to...

The driver coil is electrically a moving solenoid pushing and pulling against a permanent magnet to the tune of what you're listening to.

Unless they're electrostats.