Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Receiver suggestion for Axiom VP150, M60s

Just a side note on something I learned recently, is the electrons only travel along the surface of a wire, so given the same gauge of wire, the stranded wire will support the movement of more electrons than the single strand version will.

In an analogue signal, it's not the travel of electrons that brings the sound to the speakers. It's the electromagnetic wave. The electrons themselves barely travel along the cable at all for DC and if it were AC, they just vibrate.

The electromagnetic wave however, travels at the speed of light in a vacuum and although it can be slowed a (relatively) good bit in our world of solid materials, it will still arrive on the other side of your living room faster than you can measure without a nearby quasar to use as calibration. I think only Randy keeps one of those in his basement.

You just made my day Murph.

I know Kimber Kable use a special braiding technique on their speaker cables which have a measurable effect on the inductance and capacitance of the wire. I have to admit the Kimber wire does look nice. However, well made standard zip cord will do the job just as well.

As for the weave on the outside of the wire causing the electrons to flow faster is utter nonsense.

It's easy to make a neutral cable which passes all audio frequencies equally. Some companies go to great lengths to produce cable geometries which cause the wire itself to act as a tone control; rolling off highs or what ever.

Axiom's speaker wire is "oxygen free". Is there any special merit to oxygen free wire?

Tighter weaves mean faster electron travel? Ha! Everyone knows what makes the most difference is elevating your cables above the floor so the electromagnetic wave doesn't suffer from negative boundary effects against the floor -- especially carpeted floors. The thicker your cable and the louder you play your music, the higher you need to get them since the EM field will also be larger. For example, if you have 14ga wire and tend to listen at 90dB, you should have your wire at 6.43 inches above the floor.

For the curious, you can derive the correct height from Gauss's law:



where p is the sound loudness, and e0 is the wire's gauge. And, as we all know, decibels divided by wire gauge gives us inches.

And don't pay too much for the required cable elevators, either. You know all those wooden chopsticks you have in your junk drawer from eating Chinese takeout with a fork? Well now you'll be glad you didn't throw them out. Just make tripods with chopsticks held together by a rubber band. You can adjust the height by where you place the band.

I think I answered my own question at this link

That link's right. Oxygen-free isn't a big deal, but is one of those things which must be listed for enthusiasts to take a product seriously.

The snake oil salesmen will have you believe that copper oxide crystals can function as rectifier diodes. Since audio signals are alternating current, the last thing you want is for that signal to be converted to DC. Good thing they're full of crap.

Edited.
I keep getting sniped. I type too slow or more likely, too much.

I'll add that perhaps 02 free cable will not turn green as fast on you. Well, your exposed ends still can eventually. However, either way the levels of 02 in regular audio vs. those listed as 02 free are really a small percentage to begin with. Can't remember numbers.

You wouldn't like me when I'm green.