I design and build Amplifiers and Preamps (you might call them head amps). The choices of specific wires in the units are based on the task they are to perform, the amount of current they must carry, and their locations in the individual unit.
I do this aware that every signal is actually using two wires for each signal. In a speaker box these are easy to see. In a chassis product it is not necessarily so obvious.
I fight a constant problem, it is called the GROUND where all or some of the signals may employ the same path for what is referred to as the Return. In most cases the left and right channels share the Ground in which case the one signal line of the right and left channels 'commingle' in a common connector which is why I prefer balanced circuitry.
In my writings I have borrowed the term 'entanglement' from the QFT world to describe the possible interactions usually manifest themselves as 'space' or soundscape qualities. Over 60 years of experience with audio hardware design and modification has given me an intuition as to the nature of these interactions and have become my 'secret sauce' for Superior Product Performance.
It is the 'gestalt' of the wiring and not necessary the wire itself that is the key. Wiring is a holistic event, not a singular and individual one.
As to 'Moding' a product I frequently get request from people who still use products I first came out with (I formed the Quintessence Group in the late 1960s) on how to upgrade. After 50+ years of operation there is never a question about replacing all electrolytic caps but that's about it (we always used quality caps for signal and frequency shaping so that is not an issue for QGroup product). When asked about wiring I point our that all the wiring is already fine strand Teflon coated wiring but that what ever your beliefs and driving mythology are, don't change it unless you are deeply practiced in the job of quantity soldering and you profoundly understand what is going on in the other half of the signal, the return wiring. Do remember that the key to lowering the distortion in the old Crown DC300 amps was pushing the wiring around,, everything counts in the end.
In the end, the damage done by replacing something old with something new is frequently the enemy. As reminder of is consider that 40 year old solder has a flux in and about it that does not exist today and is not usually compatible with present day solder flux. Even though you clean up well, you are beginning a new microscopic chemical interaction which may sneak up in a couple of years and bite you in the butt. It goes well beyond that simple illustration but the point is that changing any single element of a system changes the system as a whole. Are you experience and wise enough to understand what that really means?
Good luck, Barry Thornton, Austin Audioworks
