If the 8 awg Shunyata Alpha power cable sounds so good, why not just stay with that cable? I wouldn’t have thought larger conductors should make a difference for the size amp in those speakers but if the larger gauge cord sounds better then use it. I also wouldn’t expect using silver wire should make a tangible sonic improvement over using copper wire, but you can certainly listen and choose what sounds best to you.
I use 7 awg copper cables (similar to these) feeding 650 watt power amplifiers because to me those large gauge power cables sound better with the big amps than the other PCs I have tried.
Serious Question About Silver vs Copper Conductivity for Power
Yes, I realize that this topic is going to bring out the sharks, but if I get at least one serious response, it will all be worth it.
I understand that silver conducts 7% faster than copper. I also understand that using a dielectric insulation like Teflon is best at keeping the wire from overheating, stopping signals entering and stopping signals from leaving the conductor. I understand that a certain amount of math is involved in selected gauge of wire depending largely on how much power the component is going to take, and how much the amperage is (20 or 15).
My question is regarding certain features applied to either silver or copper conductors that may or may not have an advantage over one or the other.
I have the Kimber Kable P14 Palladian. This uses 14awg copper conductors insulated in Teflon. Then it adds a massive filter that attempts to mitigate the standing wave ratio to as close to 1:1 as possible. I had Kimber’s Ascent power cable prior. It’s identical to the Palladian, except the filter. I have heard the difference between using those two cables. Apparently, mitigating the standing wave ratio lowers the noise floor significantly. However, any filter that chokes the signal and will slow the electrical current.
As I understand it, the amplifier works by opening the rectifier to allow the capacitors to fill with energy that the system will draw from. Being able to keep the rectifier open and fill the capacitors as fast as possible, reducing lag time, has the effect of creating more realistic and detailed sound.
With that said, changing to a power cable that uses pure silver insulated in Teflon, will ensure that power is delivered potentially faster. Although, the silver power cable will NOT have a filter. Therefore the standing wave ratio will not be mitigated and the electrical signal will not be choked either.
So, would the amplifier benefit from faster electrical current or slower, but cleaner electric current? Since this signal isn’t directly applied to sound, the concepts of “colder” or “warmer” sound should not apply.
Can someone help me out without poking fun at the question? Additionally, I am not interested in having a cable-theory debate. If you don’t believe cables make any difference, I will not debate or have discourse on that topic.
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The power cord does not have any effect on the filter capacitor charging time. The filter cap discharges when the rectifier output falls to zero and charges when the voltage from the rectifier exceeds the voltage on the capacitor. The charge time depends only on the power supply load resistance multiplied by the capacitance (RC time constant). For a cap to charge faster, the capacitance must be larger, and a larger capacitance results in a higher current draw. This higher current is sourced from the transformer secondary, which must have a high enough VA rating to meet the speaker load demand. As long as the voltage from the wall receptacle isn't reduced, the amplifier will preform to spec. A larger gage power cord will lessen any voltage drop more so than if it's copper or silver. You will need a power cord length of a 1,000 feet to see only a 1-ohm difference in resistance from copper to silver. I'm not going to dive into whether one sounds better than the other, but from a physics point of view a six foot silver or copper pc the same gage has no electrical differences at 120 volts at 60 hz. |
@mitch2 |
@holmz Palladian looks significantly different than other high-end power cables. That's because of its breakthrough technology resulting from thousands of hours of research at Kimber's well-equipped laboratory. Kimber's engineers developed a special SWR (standing wave ratio) enhancement technology, which dampens electrical standing wave reflections. This proprietary technology has permitted the creation of an AC power cable of unmatched clarity, silence and freedom from grain." There is no article for how the rectifier and capacitor system worked because that was a discussion I had with technical support at Shunyata Research about their equipment and cables. |
+ and going from 14 ga to 12 ga is much less resistance than a 6% boost in going to silver from copper - in terms of conductivity.
And back to the earlier physics… Does that make a difference? Probably not… but a copper wire with no insulator is faster than a copper wire with teflon and/or a silver wire with a teflon jacket. |
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