Riddle me this: how is carbon a conductor?

Sean, lighten up :>) You sometimes seem to grab a mantra, such as lower resistance is better, and defend it to the death without even considering another perspective.

The issue is much more complex than how much resistance a cable has. That is but a tiny part of the complete picture, which I maintain there is much we don't understand. If we did we wouldn't have these debates ad-nauseum on topics such as is balanced better than single ended, is copper better than silver, are tubes better than transistors, is cable A better than cable B, CD vs. vinyl vs. DVD-A vs. SACD vs. my personal favorite, 8 track tapes ..........................

Open up your mind a bit and consider something besides that which you have convinced yourself is the truth and the only truth. When Monster started pushing cables in the early eighties we all laughed that a piece of wire could affect the signal at audio frequencies. Now we know better.

I don't know if these carbon cables are any good as I haven't heard them. Others say they are pretty swell. To condemm them on the basis that the resistance is a bit higher reminds me of all these people who won't eat rice because it is a carbohydrate, and they've read a bunch of sound scientific reasons why they are bad for you. I just got back from Japan and some of the longest living people in the world are a bunch of rice eating Okinawans

You defended the magnet guy in another thread and he offered nothing but the word of God to back him up. Hmmm, that sounded a little blasphemous. I think you should give the carbon guys a chance too.

The "carbon" in question is graphite, and its delocatized pi electrons are responsible for its conductivity. That is also why carbon nanotubes are conductors.

Lapaix, just to make things clear, there are only two forms of carbon - graphite and diamond.

While I could joke about it here, the fact is that if it were a conductor, which it is not, I wouldn't be surprised if some high end audio company didn't try to make power cords out of it. But, I have already begun to see it used in loudspeaker drivers. The Liz Taylor collection of audio awaits us.

I just re-read my last post and I apologize because it looks like a personal attack on Sean. Maybe it is. I don't think that has any place here so I must apologize.

I'm afraid I've lost my patience with those who take dogmatic positions based on an incomplete understanding of the topics under discussion. I include myself and everybody here in that category because I believe that nobody fully understands what is going on with these systems. So for someone to take a position that the only acceptable spindle bearing design is one with the lowest friction, or that the only good cable designs are those with the lowest resistance, or a certain method of vibration control is the only one that will work, or any other such topic just seems totally absurd to me given the vast amount that remains a mystery in this hobby.

I think I need a vacation too so I'll be away for a while. Thanks for putting up with me.