Silver DIY Interconnects

What gauge does that equate to ? Is it "pure" silver or is it silver plated copper ? Any jacket on the wire and if so, what is the dielectric material used ? Sean
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Greetings, .6mm equates to about 22.5 awg. With 23 awg being .584mm and 22 awg being .635 mm. Probably some Cardas wire. George uses a lot of in between gauges. That wire is a bit large for my taste. It my have a bit too warm sound and lack dynamics. Other than that you might want to try the Chris Ven Haus design. It is excellent IMHO! Happy Listening! John

0.64mm is 22 gauge That's too thick for interconnect. Good for speaker cable.

You guys crack me up with 22 gauge being too heavy for interconnects. Then again, i'm sure that the feeling is just the opposite on your end when i talk about "too much power is not enough" : )

For the record, 20 gauge is "linear" up to and slightly above 20 KHz. 24 gauge is linear up to appr 100 KHz. By "linear", i'm talking about a minimum of skin effect, etc... With that in mind, the 22 - 23 gauge wire should be good up to about 50 - 60 KHz or so. Should anyone want to challenge those figures, talk to Walt Jung and Richard Marsh, not to me. They researched and documented all of this in the late 1970's with papers submitted to the AES during that time frame.

Having said that, there are two schools of thought on wire. One is to keep it as simple as possible and use one solid conductor per polarity with as little dielectric interference as possible. Greg Weaver, formerly of Soundstage and now with Stereo Times, made "signal tape" in his February 1998 article following this formula. I also think that Chris Venhaus aka Chris VH has some similar recipes, at least in basic principle, on his website.

Many claim that one runs into smearing when running multiple conductors, primarily due to unequal length signal paths, phase / impedance non-linearities, increased dielectric absorption, strand jumping when using stranded wire, etc.... I guess that these folks believe in the old acronym "K.I.S.S." ( Keep It Simple, Stupid ). Along those lines, they probably feel that the less that touches the signal and the straighter & shorter that the path is, the less there is to go wrong. There is a lot of validity to such a belief in my book.

On the other side of the coin, you have those folks that believe that one should have the lowest possible series resistance and pay special attention to physical geometries / electrical impedances in terms of trying to reduce RFI, etc... Their thoughts are that any series resistance involved may be more deleterious to the signal than the majority of effects mentioned above. On top of that, a cable that acts as an antenna and allows more noise into the system will surely result in lower performance. By using multiple conductors arrayed in specific patterns, one can reduce series resistance and minimize the potential for the cable to act as an antenna.

Obviously, there are those that fall somewhere in-between those two extremes and / or want the best of both worlds. Personally, that is why i think that there are so many different cable designs on the market. Each designer / builder feels that their approach is "most correct" in terms of how they specifically go about things. Most all designs incorporate various aspects of the same beliefs but tend to concentrate on some aspects more than others. The end result is a product that has strengths and weaknesses rather than a "mighty conquerer" that delivers all of the goods in a totally uncompromising fashion. Then again, some folks DO have specific sonic preferences in terms of "flavouring" their system and they build or use products to suite those tastes. Obviously, there is enough room in this field and diversity of products available for everyone to find what they like and be happy with it : )

Other than the above, I would suggest building a couple different designs and see what you like the best within the confines of your system. You might find that one design works well between CD and preamp and a different design works best from preamp to power amp, etc... Don't be afraid to experiment as that is how you will learn. If you find that you like one design much better than any of the others, it is not that hard to unsolder the wires and re-configure them into that design. That is, so long as you didn't go crazy and make things "permanent" when building them to begin with : )

One more suggestion. Most silver that i'm experienced with takes noticeably longer to break in than does copper. If you have some way to pump high level signals through them prior to really giving them a serious listen, you'll be better off. Otherwise, you might experience higher levels of listening fatigue and / or a sense of tonal balance that is lean and tilted upwards in response.

Best wishes and let us know what designs you try and what you like best. I'm always curious as to others' results when "home-brewing". Sean
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