Every ROHS compliant solder I’ve ever ’heard’ sounds very subtly ’hard’.
I even know of one company that will not sell into ROHS compliant territory..as the ’no lead’..... solder changes sonic signatures too much for their liking.
It is a problem that RHOS complaint region manufacturers have to pretend ---does not exist. Or manufacturers that have turned into the ROHS wind and become wholly ROHS complaint.
It is a minor, but notable and pervasive change in sound qualities that are available at a fundamental level. It’s a subtle but near irreversible step backward in the realm of sound quality. Something that makes pinnacles previously known--into being unobtainable. the ’hard’ bit in the sound quality is also slightly, subtly ’hazy’, part of what it is doing at the fundamental levels.
Further, I know of one engineer at a well known major solder manufacturer, who says that ’there are no lead free eutectic solders’. that none of them (eutectic ROHS solders) actually exist, no matter what the claims may be.
Thus another group that is fundamental to this situation, saying that something ’is’, when it is not.
For the audio world’s obtainable pinnacles, ROHS is a subtle but actual step backward in obtainable sound qualities. For the junk end of the spectrum of tv's electronics, blurays, etc...who cares. No big deal. For extremes, the kind we spend the money to try and get to, it is a soon to be pervasive (everywhere) issue, a fundamental issue.
No one wants to speak about this.
