Magnet Wire Question

Theoretical skin effect in copper at 20kHz starts at gauge 18.

Use drill - you'll never make even twisting by hand. Put at least one turn per inch. Twisted wire effectively reduces noise pickup for frequencies that have wavelength longer than pitch of the twist.

Damping factor doesn't matter. 4 ohm speaker's impedance is mostly resistive and is most likely around 3 ohms. This resistance is in series. Xover inductor in series with the woofer is about 0.1 ohm. Your effective DF is less than 1.3. As long as your amp and wires are 10x lower (0.3 ohm) it will change DF only by 10%. 0.128 ohm would be perfectly fine.

Thicker wire would reduce inductance (only a little) but you already do that by twisting. Twisting reduces inductance but also increases capacitance. It should not make a difference with speaker wire.

Make few versions with very tight, tight and loose twisting and listen. magnet wire is cheap. Good luck.

Thanks for the input! That's what I like about an inexpensive opportunity.

I'll try some different options-

Regards,

Gary

This is one of the very rare occasions on which I must disagree somewhat with my learned A'gon colleague Kijanki.

Theoretical skin effect in copper at 20kHz starts at gauge 18.

16 and 14 gauge will therefore experience a very slight rise in resistance at 20kHz, and in the ultrasonic region, compared to their resistance at lower frequencies. But that increased resistance will still be a tiny fraction of the impedance of this and most other dynamic (as opposed to electrostatic) speakers at those frequencies, and therefore completely inconsequential. Cable marketing literature notwithstanding.

Use drill - you'll never make even twisting by hand. Put at least one turn per inch. Twisted wire effectively reduces noise pickup for frequencies that have wavelength longer than pitch of the twist.

The suggestion I made of approximately 3 turns per foot corresponds to 4 inches per turn. For noise frequencies and other electromagnetic radiation that may be propagating through the air, a 4 inch wavelength corresponds to a frequency of 3 gigaHertz. The corresponding figure for noise frequencies that may be propagating in the cable itself will be on the order of 2 gigaHertz. Given that both the speakers and the amplifier have bandwidths that are many thousands of times lower than those frequencies, extending those cutoffs higher by making the turns closer together would seem unlikely to accomplish anything.

Damping factor doesn't matter.

As I said earlier, "it could be argued that 31 is more than adequate for this and most speakers." And, yes, it may not matter. But then why do so many audiophiles settle on cables that are 12 or 10 or 8 or even lower gauges, often at considerable added expense compared to narrower gauges?

Thicker wire would reduce inductance (only a little) but you already do that by twisting. Twisting reduces inductance but also increases capacitance. It should not make a difference with speaker wire.

Agreed.

Best regards,
-- Al

I should have enough to give both a try. Great insight from you guys. Can't thank you enoug!

Hope you are all having a relaxing evening. Also s great long weekend.

Thanks!

Gary

Al, I agree that skin effect might be unimportant. I only stated the boundary since cable companies (AQ FAQ) claim it is important and make all sorts of expensive arrangements like flat woven tape or helical twist of multiple wires on round hollow core (my Acoustic Zen Satori). It is far fetched concept but they know more than I do. There were sound differences between cables I used that I couldn't explain.

Tighter twist doesn't hurt and makes often handling of the wire easier. My router happens to be 5GHz. Such frequencies, once enter the box can either find LC circuit to couple to, or some nonlinear element to mix on - even while "searching" for ground return path. In addition to mixing there is also rectification phenomenon where many decades lower bandwidth amplifier converts high frequency signal into very small level DC (because of uneven positive and negative slew rates) that becomes "audible" when offending signal is amplitude or frequency modulated. We're talking microscopic levels - but why even to allow this garbage to enter amplifier's box. Wires inside of my Rowland model 102 box have very tight twist:

http://www.gzhifi.com/uploads/userup/0809/052315454K9.jpg

Why audiophiles select thick gauges? I'd like to know. Perhaps to reduce inductance?