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Math + Logic + Science = something completely mad...

So, I've done a metric fuckton of research, notwithstanding the clear bias the man who designed and built my Belles has against esoteric cabling.  And here's the conclusion to which I arrived. 

My monoblocks are sitting on top of the speakers.  The distance from the amp to the speaker is barely a foot, which is exactly how long a run of wire I intend to use.  Goal is to minimize the effect the wire has on the sound.  

According to the calculations I've seen and done, the skin effect depth on copper wire at 20Khz is 461 micrometers.  Meaning a 19-gauge copper wire (911 mics diameter) would reduce skin effect to zero.  As in no impact whatsoever on the signal. 
 
Of course, it's actually very difficult to find 19-gauge wire.  18-gauge (1024 mics) is much easier, and the skin effect is near zero, but not quite zero.  Seems to be an acceptable compromise. Could go down to 20-gauge and eliminate skin effect entirely.  If I could find insulated aluminum wire, 18-gauge would eliminate skin effect entirely, because skin effect depth on aluminum at 20khz is 580 mics.  

12 inches of 18-gauge wire produces 0.006 ohms of additional resistance.  20-gauge = 0.01 ohms.  

Frankly, I don't see the value in spending big bucks on esoteric, heavy-gauge wire for this application.  I'd rather make the bigger investment in the 2m runs from the preamp to the blocks, because that's where the wire's going to have a hell of a lot more of an effect on the sound.  

Stepping back to allow you all the opportunity to punch holes in my thought process here. 
jerkface
clearthinker's avatar
clearthinker
1,582 posts
 
Totally looney to put big amps on speakers.
For all the valid and good reasons stated above.

If space is at such a premium, why not hang the amps on wires from the ceiling so they sit in the air just 1cm above the top of the speaker.


But @jerkface does make one interesting point: " We are talking about a signal velocity approaching the speed of light."

This must be correct.  So how come whatever wire you use can make a big difference to SQ.  Especially for @jerkface who employs extremely short runs.
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williewonka
3,075 posts
 
@jerkface - You seem to have misinterpreted my postings somewhere along the way, since I have made NO mention about Skin effect in any of my posts

And for the record - I do not consider skin effect to be an issue in the audio bandwidth of 20-20kHz.

But for everyone's edification, here is just one web site that I encountered during my investigations into dielectric materials - and they have far more experience in cable building  than myself
LAB: Comparing Dielectric Effect Distortion to Jitter (anticables.com)

But in order to avoid a long read - here is an extract
When the music signal flows through a cable, the dielectric material (insulation) around the wire absorbs some if this magnetic energy, but then re-releases it back into the wire slightly later in time. This time smearing of the music signal is called dielectric effect distortion. Both this and jitter distortion collapses the sound stage, makes the music sound hard and closed in, and reduces dynamics making the music sound lifeless and un-involving

To complicate things further - consider the effect it has on what we hear from a two channel system
- those distortions present minute differences in phase between L and R channels
- these impact imaging, clarity and dynamics 

Will this impact a 12" cable? - I found it was discernible on my system

So that's about all I have to contribute to this particular thread

I wish you well in your endeavors to find your Nirvana

Signing off - Steve
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