UP-OCC solid core copper for speaker cable


After reading about all these expensive cables and their extravagant claims, I decided to source the same wire that goes into many of them.

I have my monoblocs underneath and therefore close to the speakers. I ordered 8 feet of 14awg UP-OCC wire (with PTFE insulation) online. It is quite springy so I clamped it gently to the bench and cut it into 4 equal lengths. Assembling it into 2 x 24" speaker cables took a few minutes. I kept it running in the same direction, just in case. Be careful to gently slice the insulation and not to scar the copper.

Anyway, the improvement in sound quality was of a high order. Large increases in speed and transparency, more air, better definition of instruments, less coloration, backing voices I never noticed before etc. The improvement in musicality was impressive.

I urge folks to try this before spending lots of money on speaker cables. I don't bother with connectors as I feel they are another item in the way but that's your call. The wire was $6 a foot.

Available here:http://www.partsconnexion.com/wire_hookup_neotech_copper_teflon.html

See a photo of my cable here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/6iot28p0weuwytn/up-occ.jpg?dl=0
128x128noromance

brf,

MIT does not use OCC single crystal wire sorry they use cheap ofc wire cuz I phoned them and asked them.

@urbie 

MIT is not very forth coming about their cable composition and geometry.  Call them again and ask them point blank….does the Taiwan Wan Lung factory provide MIT with their cables/wire?  Also, look at many reviews of MIT cables where they state 6N OOC copper used in the construction.  

@testpilot he is going to hijack this thread about his OCC expertise (to wit he has none)

I have Zafino OCC The Prima MKII OCC Speaker Cable 9AWG - ZavfinoUSA

Great cable and in my main system I have all Zafino OCC OCC Silver Dart - Graphene Dielectric Speaker Cable - ZavfinoUSA

Power, IC and Speaker. 

More information on OCC: 

An Interview with Steven Huang of Audio Sensibility - Dagogo

The rapid development of the electronics industry in Japan in the 1970’s led to the aggressive miniaturization of electronic components. This in turn drove the demand to draw wire of increasingly fine gauge. It became evident to Dr. Ohno that it would be necessary to develop metal materials with no casting defects or crystal grain boundaries to continue the miniaturization.

This became the motivation for his research which led to the patenting of the Ohno Continuous Casting process in 1986. Actually Dr. Ohno was granted five patents related to his continuous casting process between 1985 and 1981.

By using a heated mold with the temperature profile carefully selected, and drawing the material at a very slow rate it is possible to cause the solidification process to start from the inside-out resulting in the formation of very long crystals in the metal, rather than the many short crystals that form in conventional casting when the material cools from the outside-in.

Because of the requirement of very high purity metal (to prevent premature crystallization) and cast at very slow speeds, the cost of manufacture of OCC product is much more expensive than using conventional casting.

The OCC process was initially licensed to Furukawa Electric of Japan.

It soon became evident that the metallurgical properties of OCC copper were also advantageous for audio applications. The initial use of OCC copper wire in audio began in 1988 by a company called Furutech (no relation to Furukawa Electric) with Audioquest soon following in 1989 with its cables using Perfect Surface Copper (PSC).

The OCC process made a small fortune for Dr. Ohno, and in gratitude to his alma mater he made a generous research endowment to the University of Toronto in 1989.

University of Toronto OCC Research Lab

The UofT Department of Metallurgical Engineering established an OCC research lab in recognition of the donation. Today the Chiba Institute of Technology and University of Toronto remain the two leading OCC research centers in the world.

Dr. Ohno who is now in his mid eighties, is a Professor Emeritus at both Chiba and Toronto, and continues to keep in touch with researchers at the two institutions on a weekly basis. He remains in good health and was fortunately not affected by the recent earthquake in Japan.

Today there are three companies who cast OCC metals and an ever increasing number of audio companies using OCC copper and silver in their very best cables.

testpilot,

MIT does not use OCC single crystal wire I was on their website nor does it say anywhere that they use OCC single Crystal conductors, if they did it would be stated on their website they're probably using cheap junk ofc like transparent does and charge an arm and a leg for it, there's even something better out there now it's rectangular OCC single Crystal conductors and the Neotech is the only company that makes it, Superior to even the round OCC wire is check out their website and click on rectangular wire, the Amazon is there rectangular silver OCC wire and the Sahara is their rectangular copper OCC wire. I got the Sahara and I can tell you first hand it's much better than my round OCC speaker wire and interconnects and I was using the top stuff from Harmonic technology.