How Does Gold Wire Handle?

Jafreeman, gold is very fragile and kinks much easier than silver and copper. It has memory, but not as much as silver and copper, but it will stay coiled if that is how it is stored. When threaded through cotton, the cotton adds stability and helps keep the wire from kinking.

Willewonka you are correct that gold is not as good a conductor as silver and copper, but conductance has little to do with the sonic result of the cable. Gold is the richest, most dimensional sounding metal I have used. In the gauges that are being discussed here, the slow often syrupy sound often associated with gold will be alleviated. In fact these gauges will provide a fast, transparent bottom end without the fatigue you would get from silver.

Good luck with your project, done right gold will provide you the best result available.

JD

Jafreeman, your design should produce excellent results with each strand separate. Are you planning on using gold for all three pins? You will want to protect all three with Teflon tubing. If your not considering using gold in pin one, you might want to think that through. I use a 24 gauge as well as some finer gauge in the one pin. For what ever the scientific reason, it matters.

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