Anyone with experience having cables made using Amorphous Metals/Alloys

@williewonka Thank you for your response. Looks like you have pretty deep experience with DIYing cables. I agree with you regarding UPOCC cables & hence even I use UPOCC copper cable for speaker cable.

I would like to know how & from where did you manage to procure UPOCC Copper or silver cables for your exoeriments? I find it very difficult, some times even next to impossible to procure cables that I want. Recently I wanted to procure flat foil UPOCC Copper or Silver...I was not able to find anyone who could provide me what I wanted. Hence any help on procuring cables or conductors is much appreciated.

Regarding the point that you mentioned about finding UPOCC better sounding than rest of the conducors (ignoring the geometry & talking purely from conductor perspective). Thats quite understandable as UPOCC has very less amount of crystal copared to OFC version or even standard metal version. But UPOCC is the patented method so finding it easily and economically is going to be a challenge.

Amorphous metal (or alloys) are actually a step ahead. They are made using a method called as Melt Spinning (there are other methods as well) wherein the molten alloy is cooled very rapidly so that atoms don't have any time to form any crystal structure. Hence these are also called as metal glasses. Now since they don't have any crystal structure at all and they are very tightly placed without any (or minimal) interatomic space compared regular crystalised metal, it's going to be even better than UPOCC because of the said reasons. Hence I am looking for amorphous Copper or silver. Let me know if you know any manufacturer who can provide me what I am looking for.

Regards,

Audio_phool

OP have you tried Neotech? Taiwanese company with distributors in California, Canada and the UK.

Neotech

@srinisr No I haven't tried those distributors but I will surely check with them, thyanks for that. But I doubt if it's (Amorphous Copper/Silver) not already avaibale, then they will make just 10 meters or so for me.

Audio_phool

@williewonka 

Steve, thanks for sharing your journey on making cables. It nicely points out how many permutations there are in searching for the “right stuff”. Early on in my career I was asked to develop a electro mechanical system which required a dielectric of uncertain properties. After struggling with theory for a few days, I just went out and bought every brand and type I could find and started trying them. From that I learned some generalities. Same kind of thing you are doing. I assume you have done similar research in insulation. 

@audio_phool - did some reading on the amorphous metals and I am intrigued, but from what I understand, this could potentially open up a pandora’s box - it should be fun trying to figure it all out 😃

At this moment in time I have no sources for this type of conductor, but will keep it in mnd going forward.

From what I have read, they tend to be used in experinabtal or highly advacncd engineering and are yet to be used in something as mundane as wire. However, there is some articles on using them for transmission cables to mitigate tranmissions overheads, so it souls come sooner than later

But do keep an eye on Neotech cables - they seem to be ahead of the curve on metalurgy.

And thanks for providing all the info - much appreciated - Steve

@ghdprentice - yep you got it - from my web site

Dielectric Constant - what is it?
During previous developments, it was quite noticeable that selecting wires that had an insulation with a low Dielectric Constant (Dk) for the signal or live wires only resulted in improved sound quality

Dielectric Constant (Dk)…

• Dielectric constant, property of electrical insulating material (which is a dielectric) equal to the ratio of the capacitance of a capacitor filled with the given material to the capacitance of an identical capacitor in a vacuum without the dielectric material.

• PVC: Dk = 4.0
• Teflon: Dk = 2.2
• Foamed Teflon (AirLok): Dk = 1.45
• Cotton or Silk: Dk = 1.3
• Air: DK = 1.1

So what does this mean in reality

• the lower the Dk, then the noise that is generated by the signal passing through the wire is lower.
• I have compared teflon to Foamed teflon and foamed teflon to cotton and in each case the wire with the lower Dk valuse outperformed the other wire
• One of the reasons Duelund is loved by audiophiles is that the cotten insulation provides for a very detailed signal

My challenge with the Helix IMAGE DIY cables, was to get the Dk value as close to Air as possible...

• my cables use solid wire conductors
• if you put a bare solid wire inside an oversize teflon tube then the wire will only come in contact with the teflon at a single point and the rest of the wire is surounded by air
• I use a tube that has an internal diameter approximately 25-30% larger than the diameter of the wire
• the tube does not collapse around the wire - hence maintaining the air gap around most of the surface area of the wire
• I seal the end of the tube with hot glue or heat shrink to minimize the amount of tarnishing - so far after two years the wires are still very bright

And so the Helix IMAGE Air came into being!

You can apply this technique to any cable geometry and it will provide excellent clarity and details.

Hope that helps - Steve