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Cardas Cold Forging

Has anyone tried the new Cardas option to have their speaker cable and connectors cold forged, making for a solid connection with no "connective" points with solder, etc. Sounds good in theory for line transmission, but can you hear any difference? If so what? I'm using Cardas Golden Reference.
pubul57
bobbyapalkovic
729 posts
 
mitch,
Day one: Old terminations removed. Ends are dipped in solvent to remove the clear coat on every strand.
Day two: dipped again, while being agitated. Set out to dry
Day three: unwind the conductors using a couple of wire wheel hand tools to remove remaining residue from stripping process. Two stage crimping process, resulting in each strand being fused into a solid lump, and then fused onto spades.
this is the description from turboglo above.
ok mich?
best, bobby
mitch2
4,167 posts
 
Geez Bobby, sorry but I totally missed tuboglo's post. I am on board with the process since I use high pressure hydraulic crimpers on the cables I make; using a similar die, two crimps and trim the spades, very similar to the Cardas video, but of course not the same pressure or degree of fusion. I much prefer that crimped connection to soldered connections I have done, but I haven't tried it on litz wire. I am glad to hear those who have had cold forging done to their Cardas cables prefer the sound, although I would expect nothing less from Cardas.
hifihvn
943 posts
 
This process of doing this this does not leave you with a solid one piece of copper. Cutting it open will actually let them separate into multiple pieces again. If they melted and turned into one, that's what you would have, but this most likely wouldn't be the case. Also, this process is actually over crimping. Copper is soft and malleable. If you run the cable at its full rated capacity, you will most likely have a hotter terminal with this method, than a normal proper crimp, with the correct dies used for both crimps. When over crimped like this, some of the copper will squeeze out, leaving a lighter gauge wire, than you started with. I'd like to see the terminal cut the opposite direction, to show this claimed solid theory. Also under a scope before filing, and letting some stray fillings appear to fill the gaps. You could polish the cut end enough to make a nice shiny finish. It is still not one, like taking in to its melting point, and actually turning the multiple pieces into one. For low current speaker termination, I'm guessing this process is fine. I don't think it would ever be adopted for termination that involves carrying electricity to anything, that may have human lives on the line.
bobbyapalkovic
729 posts
 
the copper wires are pressed together and extruded. they are in effect one piece. to get them apart a chisel would be needed. are they melted? maybe, maybe not but there is heat evident. how about fused?
when the connector is crimped to the wire bundle, just enough pressure is used to squeeze the air out between them. the second stage reqires much higher pressure to fuse the components into one piece.
we are talking about speaker wire termination and not conducting electricity. but george assures me this connection would be fine for that too.
best, bobby
hifihvn
943 posts
 
we are talking about speaker wire termination and not conducting electricity. but george assures me this connection would be fine for that too.
best, bobby
Bobbyapalkovic (Answers | This Thread)

They can be cut open quite easily, and that would reveal they are not fused. I didn't know anyone used a chisel to check something like this.

For speaker termination, they should get by.

As far as they are not for electricity, speakers need that to make music.

I'm glad I didn't make the claim.
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