How Does Gold Wire Handle?

As you may assume, I have tried every possible combination of materials for all three pins. I have tried copper, silver, palladium, gold and platinum. For what ever the reason, the materials in the #1 pin mater and have just as significant an affect as on the other two pins.

I have found all gold works best for all solid state equipment, and gold/platinum combination when used in a tube system. This is of course a generalization, and different ears will prefer different cables. It might be worth experimenting with platinum too, but only if you don't mind spending the extra money.

Now if you promise to not tell anyone my secrets, I will share what gauges I use in my reference cables. The #1 pin I use 1-30 gauge, 2-28 gauge and 1-24 gauge wire. In the #2 and #3 pins I use 2-30 gauge and 1-28 gauge wire. All wires are of course 99.99% pure gold solid wire.

I sleeve all three wires in the #2 and #3 pins into one 2mm cotton sleeve and sleeve the 24 gauge in its own sleeve for the #1 pin. I use Teflon tubes for all three pins to add strength to the assembly.

As you probably know I use 3/4" cotton piping to keep the three conductors approximately equally apart from one another.

I wish you luck on the project.

Jade

Amazing, Jade--kind of mind-blowing, actually. That you are mixing gauges in the #2 and #3 pins tells me the addition of a 28-gauge there has probably added something beyond three 30 gauge wires you have previously mentioned along the way. Seems traditional thinking around here suggests using the same gauges in each conductor, but then, advances come through experimenting on the same themes until something breaks through. I will follow your sage advice on the #1 pin by adding more wire mass to chassis/signal ground. I won't ask why--I'm sure someone else here will have some input on this.

In the interest of the thread, I should have stated my project goal--to exceed the performance of my Transparent Reference 1.5 meter XLR interconnects, purchased, about eight years ago for 4K. I have actually been fairly happy with these cables, but I really believe that, with the continued introduction of high-quality components on the DIY market this can now be achieved with careful technique and quality control.

Regarding the significance of how pin 1 is wired, I don't find it surprising that it can make a difference, although I would expect the magnitude and character of that difference to be dependent on the designs of the particular components that are involved.

Inter-chassis noise currents will inevitably flow through the pin 1 connection to some degree, due to ground loop and other effects. The magnitude and frequency characteristics of that noise will vary as a function of the resistance and inductance of the wiring that is connected between pin 1 of the two connectors. Depending on whether each of the two components connects pin 1 to its internal signal ground (which would be improper, but is often done nevertheless), or to chassis, or to chassis and then to signal ground through some impedance, some fraction of that noise current will inevitably find its way into audio circuitry, where it may intermodulate with or otherwise affect the audio signal.

Regards,
-- Al

I suspect a proper evaluation of the various alternatives would be a little tedious given that all cables really do need to undergo both burn in and cryogenic treatment. Otherwise it's just a pig in a poke. Not to mention system and location eccentricities. Sometimes copper just plain sounds better than silver no matter what you do.