Copper Deterioration?

Exposed portions of a cable will oxidize over time. Of course, the exposed portions are not what is making the connection. So its impact on sound is, shall we say, open to question.

I do agree that you shouldn't waste your money on expensive copper. :)

It's not that silver sounds "better" when it oxidizes; Silver oxide is a better conductor than unoxidized copper.

Two points:

1) Bomarc, how do you make an air-tight / sealed connection using bare wire and a binding post ?

2) Unsound, you give me WAY too much credit. I had simply intended on stripping, treating each stripped cable with a specific type of "contact enhancer" and laying them out in one specific area all at one time. Each cable would be exposed to the same conditions for the same amount of time. I would check these on occassion and document the various levels of visible corrosion as time progresses. When things have gotten to the point that some are very noticeably "crusty", i would take resistance readings again ( like i would as a baseline at the beginning ) and record them.

Doing such would give us ( since i would be sharing the results ) a better idea of which "treatments" work best, how long they hold up and how often the connections should be cleaned and re-treated. I will not be testing each "treatment" for sonics as that would be PURELY subjective and have Bomarc and associates foaming at the mouth : )

Obviously, temperature / humidity conditions will vary from place to place so the results would only be "ballpark" at best. As such, documenting the specifics of temperature / humidity might provide more "scientific" data but i'm more concerned with "real world" conditions that one would see in a normal day to day household environment.

Tryin' to keep it "real".... Sean
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There are some brands out there like Cardas, Wireworld etc.. that have an enamel coating protecting the copper which will tend to make it less susceptible to corrosion.

Mechanical integrity of any cable product is almost as important as the internal composition. Copper based cables will not oxidize if conductors are shielded properly and the joint at the termination is hermetically sealed. Obviously the termination from time to time will have to be cleaned. I have used in the past, Monster,Straightwire, Kimber,Cardas FMS,Virtual Dynamics,and now exclusively Sonoran Audio. There have been oxidation problems only on the Monster,Kimber and FMS cables, and that is because of poor mechanical termination.