After playing around with wires and cables for almost 6 months now, i have finally settled down with telephone wires for my interconnects. The reason for this selection is as per below and my experiments with different cables,
- Initially before this debate even began i use to use stock RCA cables that were available for around 150/- to 300/- bucks bought from Reliance Digital store. Needless to say they were basically PVC insulated cables and were unbranded or maybe Chinese branded. The sound if i remember now were more cluttered highs and mids and very loose bass. The PVC insulation has a Dielectric constant for 5.3+
- i later diy my interconnects using teflon cables and found them to be bright and very fast paced and due to the bright sound signature it was masking the lows significantly. Teflon has a dielectric constant of 2.1, but the silver coated copper wire was very edgy.
- later after discussion with FMs went with solid core copper wire of 26SWG for my IC and preamp internal wiring. This particular wire has potential and went with a twisted wire for my IC which was having an enamel coating. The enamel has a dielectric constant for around 4.5. The solid copper wire was a bit bright (less than Teflon though) but was little edgy on some recordings and could lead to listening fatigue for long listening sessions.
- After a bit research noted that dielectric constant of insulation closer to "Air" was the one to aim for. This lead me to cotton insulated wires, but unfortunately nothing was available. It could be diy with cotton sleeves. FM Jousha was of the opinion that cotton though good as a dielectric material, the solid copper wire insite them could not be completely insulated from air leading to formation of copper oxide (which has a dielectric constant of 18). The only wire that could be suitable was gold wires as their corrosion time is least but it would not be financially feasible. Silver also oxidizes to form silver oxide giving it a black tinge.
- After more reading could find a dielectric material polyethelene which has dielectric constant of 2.2 (close to teflon of 2.1) and is available in solid copper wires in telephone cables. this gave me one more opportunity to try the Polycab Telephone cables which was available in the local electric shop for 15/- bucks per meter for 2 pair wire. This wire has an internal insulation of polyethelene and outer insulation of PVC and a Nylon sheath in the inside of the outer insulation. I removed the PVC insulation and the Nylon sheath and used only the 0.4mm solid copper wire with Polyethelene wire for my interconnects.
Subjective listening reveals much balanced sound with less harshness and clutter in the mids and highs. Also the bass is much balanced and tight. I have yet to have long listening session with this wire and plan to do that tomorrow. The initial test was so encouraging that it tempted me to replace the preamp internal wiring (which was solid single core copper magnetic wire) to the polyethelene telephone wire.
Also telephone companies may be using this particular wires for their voice transfers for some particular reason which i am not aware. It could be better frequency response in the audio band, less losses, better permeabality and losses - who knows.
Also one more option is to use CAT5e or CAT6 data cables which also has polyethelene insulation (medium density). The telephone cables are high density polyethelene.
Thanks for looking.
- Initially before this debate even began i use to use stock RCA cables that were available for around 150/- to 300/- bucks bought from Reliance Digital store. Needless to say they were basically PVC insulated cables and were unbranded or maybe Chinese branded. The sound if i remember now were more cluttered highs and mids and very loose bass. The PVC insulation has a Dielectric constant for 5.3+
- i later diy my interconnects using teflon cables and found them to be bright and very fast paced and due to the bright sound signature it was masking the lows significantly. Teflon has a dielectric constant of 2.1, but the silver coated copper wire was very edgy.
- later after discussion with FMs went with solid core copper wire of 26SWG for my IC and preamp internal wiring. This particular wire has potential and went with a twisted wire for my IC which was having an enamel coating. The enamel has a dielectric constant for around 4.5. The solid copper wire was a bit bright (less than Teflon though) but was little edgy on some recordings and could lead to listening fatigue for long listening sessions.
- After a bit research noted that dielectric constant of insulation closer to "Air" was the one to aim for. This lead me to cotton insulated wires, but unfortunately nothing was available. It could be diy with cotton sleeves. FM Jousha was of the opinion that cotton though good as a dielectric material, the solid copper wire insite them could not be completely insulated from air leading to formation of copper oxide (which has a dielectric constant of 18). The only wire that could be suitable was gold wires as their corrosion time is least but it would not be financially feasible. Silver also oxidizes to form silver oxide giving it a black tinge.
- After more reading could find a dielectric material polyethelene which has dielectric constant of 2.2 (close to teflon of 2.1) and is available in solid copper wires in telephone cables. this gave me one more opportunity to try the Polycab Telephone cables which was available in the local electric shop for 15/- bucks per meter for 2 pair wire. This wire has an internal insulation of polyethelene and outer insulation of PVC and a Nylon sheath in the inside of the outer insulation. I removed the PVC insulation and the Nylon sheath and used only the 0.4mm solid copper wire with Polyethelene wire for my interconnects.
Subjective listening reveals much balanced sound with less harshness and clutter in the mids and highs. Also the bass is much balanced and tight. I have yet to have long listening session with this wire and plan to do that tomorrow. The initial test was so encouraging that it tempted me to replace the preamp internal wiring (which was solid single core copper magnetic wire) to the polyethelene telephone wire.
Also telephone companies may be using this particular wires for their voice transfers for some particular reason which i am not aware. It could be better frequency response in the audio band, less losses, better permeabality and losses - who knows.
Also one more option is to use CAT5e or CAT6 data cables which also has polyethelene insulation (medium density). The telephone cables are high density polyethelene.
Thanks for looking.
Silver of different brands in my experience always had more top end air than pure copper, but always it sounded a bit bodyless. silvers sound faster to decay. But copper despite being slower and lacking the sparkle of the silver, has more body towards midrange. i am only coming to a conclusion based on a small set of branded cables like audioquest, inakustik, oehlbach, silverlink and silent wire. Also I have tried out super cheap local copper wires and PC sata cable. 
