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Solid core Versus Stranded Speaker cables

Ok for starters I have never tried a solid core Speaker cable until recently. I was very skeptical of the solids performance but I'm glad I tried it. As a matter of fact I tried it and found it to be the best cable I have ever used to date. After much searching, getting opinions from fellow audio enthusiasts and trial and error I happened upon a seller here on Audiogon, JW Audio who offered a 30 day in home trial period with full money returned, no questions asked and took a shot in the dark. That shot hit the bullseye dead center. After receiving the Cryo Nova 12 foot long cables, I was somewhat stunned when I seen the cable, it was nothing like I expected but I connected it anyway. Holy S....t did it make an immediate difference and it keeps getting better. My entire system (Krell) opened up like peeling the skin off a banana. Highs, lows, detail, soundstage, depth, clarity and details that I was missing were revealed. ( and I thought what I had was really outstanding )

Which brings me to the point of this thread. Not knowing what makes a solid core or a stranded speaker cable more desirable aside from the obvious flexibility issues I'm curious to know what my fellow audiocrazies use and why they prefer one over the other or if they even tried both. Anyone willing to give up their opinions on the pros and cons of solid versus stranded speaker cable? I will start that I am a convert to at least this particular solid core speaker wire and unless someone can better it with the 30 day free trial period I do believe it is here to stay.

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Showing 3 responses by kijanki

kijanki's avatar
kijanki
4,394 posts
 
Skin effect in copper starts at gauge 18@20kHz. Current in thick stranded cable jumps constantly from strand to strand to stay on the outside of the cable (skin effect). Surface of each strand contains impurities (copper oxide). Insulated strands are much better. Skin effect still exists since strands are in magnetic field of the other strands but it can be arranged in helical twist on hollow tube or flat tape to reduce magnetic field to neighboring strands only. At least that's how Audioquest explains it.

I replaced very thick stranded Monster Cable with a solid wire (AQ Indigo) long time ago, and sound opened substantially. Stranded cable was muffling the sound.
kijanki's avatar
kijanki
4,394 posts
 
Strands don’t have to be 26awg since 18awg copper has 100% skin depth at 20kHz, as I mentioned in previous post. When they are stranded insulated then you will still have skin effect since they are in magnetic field of each other. That’s why they arrange them on hollow tube or flat tape, so that any particular wire is mostly in magnetic field of neighboring strands only, reducing skin effect.

As for purity of the copper - OFC has thousand of crystals per ft while zero crystal copper has one. Impurities reside between crystals. Zero crystal copper has one crystal not because of perfect purity, but because copper is cooled slowly in hot forms preventing crystal formation.
kijanki's avatar
kijanki
4,394 posts
 
@davekayc I believe that speaker wires should be twisted. Twisting reduces inductance (important) and increases capacitance (not important). It is a great way to reduce electrical noise pickup, from electromagnetic and electric fields. Twisting might be a little more difficult with stranded wires.
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