Simple question, or is it...


What exactly is an audio signal made of, and what exactly is the medium it travels through in a cable??
thecarpathian
@jea48

The majority of my posts on the subject have been quotes from articles and white papers. My comments have been in reference to the quoted material.
This is from your links as well how do you explain it?

http://amasci.com/elect/vwatt1.html

HOW CAN THE ELECTRONS FLOW SLOWLY, WHILE ELECTRICAL ENERGY FLOWS FAST?
Wires are always full of movable electrons (all metals are.) The electrons act something like a liquid or fluid: they act like a substance. Electrical energy is less like a substance. Instead the energy is waves which travel through this "electric fluid" or "charge-substance" within the wires.

This topic can be confusing because some books tell us that the electrons are the electrical energy. Or perhaps they’ll say that a current is a flow of energy. Those books are simply wrong.
Electrical energy can move quickly along a column of electrons inside a wire, even though the electrons themselves move slowly. All metals are always full of electrons.

Note that with the battery and bulb, the joules of energy flowed one way, down both wires. The battery created the electrical energy, and the light bulb consumed it. This was not a circular flow. The energy went from battery to bulb, and none returned. At the same time, the charge-stuff flowed slowly in a circle within the entire ring. Two things were flowing at the same time through the one circuit. There you have the main difference between amperes and watts. The coulombs of charge are flowing slowly in a circle, while the joules of energy are flowing rapidly from an "energy source" to an "energy sink".

But what are Joules? That’s where the electromagnetism comes in. When joules of energy are flying between the battery and the bulb, they are made of invisible fields. The energy is partly made up of magnetic fields surrounding the wires. It is also made from the electric fields which extend between the two wires. Electrical-magnetic. Electromagnetic fields. The joules of electrical energy are the same "stuff" as radio waves. But in this case they’re attached to the wires, and they flow along the columns of movable electrons inside the wires. The joules of electrical energy are a bit like sound waves which can flow along an air hose. Yet at the same time, electrical energy is very different than sound waves. The electrical energy flows in the space around the wires, while the electric charge flows inside the wires.
This is saying that Energy flows outside the wires, Charge flows inside the wires but part of that energy, JOULES of electrical energy, are attached to the wire and FLOW with the electrons.

It sounds like when the signal is broken down into it's constituent parts and analyzed separately is when all the head scratching occurs.

You have fields which, by their very definition, don't move. You have waves that are the result of something moving, or you wouldn't have the wave. That something is moving much faster than the wave (or it wouldn't be a wave, unless it's a poor analogy).

Then you have the conveyance (the wire) to ponder. The field is generated around the conveyance and the wave is residing in that field and both act on the wire and different metallurgy reacts differently to them.

Inside that conveyance resides even more constituent components. Electrons that move so slowly that they can be eliminated as the signal carrier, but can have a contribution. A form of current (power) that's part of the signal (something has to propel it). The physical make up of the covering of the wire (dielectric) which imparts it's own negative contributions due to it's interference. 

With all of that in mind, I'll just trust my ears and leave pondering the imponderables to others. 😄

All the best,
Nonoise




Not only the metallurgy of a wire produce different results but adding minerals of different kind on the connectors or all along the electrical grid disturb or improve audio signals...This is my experience...
Good point! What specifically do you think the crystals/minerals are affecting? Just curious. You’ve had a lot of experience. You must have some ideas, yes? Same question for the metallurgy. 
Post removed