Silver plated copper

Skin effect is frequency dependent and negligible at audio frequencies.

This is not exactly true, although it is common to think of it that way. So common that the fundamental was lost.

One might say that the skin effect consideration is affected by the wire or path of transmission, and that the formula we use is specifically tied to ’wire’, or lengths of pathway that are longer than they are wide..

Then that formula is ’made up’, regarding ’black box’ analysis of AC flow in said geometry of the flow.

Or, that the phenomena of skin effect, has been applied to transmission lines, the formula is created for application to transmission lines in engineering and design.... and then people take this simplistic single point and misapply and call it skin effect, when in fact, it is not. Far from it.

Skin effect is indicative of a greater consideration than the simplistic transmission line formula suggests. That the complexity of Skin effect and it’s origins were and are ’black boxed’ for simplistic engineering work.

That the black box is a far bigger thing than the simple formula or it’s generic and common application.

What is in the black box of skin effect?

The distortion in an ac waveform as propagated through or via a ’transmission line’, will occur in the DC to AC & AC to DC changes in that given signal.

the bulk skin effect consideration, the real actual skin effect, is not the transmission line addendum formula that all are familiar with (in engineering)..

this real skin effect itself, it transits from being in the core of the conductive bulk (very large bulk conductor--not wire, but a giant block)..and towards the surface, at approximately 400hz.

This means that any approximation of DC that is below 400 hz, will attempt to move and actually move toward the center of the conductor.

All of human hearing is tied to listening to transients. We do not hear the other ~90% of the signal.

Keep this in mind for a second.

Look at the complex sine wave of a music signal as expressed in electrical terms, in conjunction with a transmission line.

Where exactly, does this sinewave have a delta, or rate of change that is at zero? Ie, DC?

There is only one place it does this.

At the peak of the transient. The moment of peak transient is the moment of DC.

At zero signal level, and electrical signal flip (in traditional views), that is occurring at the highest delta, or rate of change - the exact opposite of the DC occurring at peak at the transient. The transition ( ac to dc to ac--at the peak) is not instantaneous and no we don’t get to ignore that short DC moment. It’s key, here.

At the greatest rate of power and signal integration of the signal and wire, that is the point where the signal attempts to retreat to the core, and flip. The time is short, though, so hard reflections and complex distortion generation is the result. The hint of this sticks out in complex LCR phase diagrams, but does not express it directly. That phase diagram is a application aspect, and is engineering oriented for wire and whatnot....it is not truly tied to the fundamental theories that underpin the scenario. In this case the underlying theoretical aspect becomes important. It's the only way to bridge the hearing vs measurements problem.

The bulk of the noise and distortion of a sine signal, a complex wide-band sine signal such as music, occurs in the peak transient domain and pretty well no where else, and the ear is only listening to that part. The ear is wired to solely listen to this part.

So people say they hear changes in cables.

Well, no freaking wonder.

And that is the simple analysis. Then it gets complex....