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FEATFAN
01-09-2006, 02:24 PM
Hello One And All I Am Considering Terminating The Ends Of My Speaker Cables By Encasing The Strands In A Thin Layer Of Electrical Silver Sodder. This Would Seal Out Any Air And Reduce Or Eliminate Oxidation. Threading The Cable Thru Binding Posts Would Become Much Easier. I First Cosidered Using Banana Plugs. The Plugs Wouldn't Provide As Much Surface Contact, Could Be Accidently Pulled Out, And Still Have Bare Wire Inside The Plug Which Will Oxidize. Has Anyone Else Tried This ?

kexodusc
01-09-2006, 04:07 PM
The actual audible improvements would be so small that measurment devices wouldn't pick them up, and you wouldn't never achieve absolute certainty that you did in fact here something different.
Not sure it's worth the bother really. Not a whole lot of contact is absolutely needed. Cleaning the speaker wire terminations once a year should be sufficient.

But you are correct, oxidation should be reduced if that's a real concern for you. If you don't expect to be moving your gear much, might not be a bad idea I guess.

pelly3s
01-09-2006, 06:38 PM
its called tinning the wire its just what you are "supposed" to do with a bare end of wire anyways. I use that statement loosely. you wont notice any difference in sound at all. you also dont want the solder to be "encasing" the wire you want it to evenly coat it.

jocko_nc
01-11-2006, 06:21 PM
For what it is worth... all "marine rated" wire and cables are fully tinned to resist corrosion. Shop at a good marine supplier, the cost is marginally more.

jocko

royphil345
01-11-2006, 07:34 PM
I used to read all the time that soldering speaker wires would have a negative impact on sound. I don't buy it though. I heavily tinned the ends of my 12 guage wires. The result is the strongest pin connectors I've ever used. The solder even ran under the casing a little bit acting like a strain relief. On the receiver end of my wires, I had to trim off a few strands of wire so the "pins" weren't too large. Made sure I had a really good solder connection to the cut strands.

hermanv
01-23-2006, 02:23 PM
Somewhere between twice a year and four times a year I use contact cleaner on all my cables both interconnects and speaker wires. I remove each connection clean it and then put it back, it is a giant pain in the *** . I do it because the system sounds better to me afterwards.

I use mostly expensive cables and wires with expensive connectors, one hopes that these are made to not oxidize as much as base copper does. In spite of the cost of these hopefully well made and plated with exotic materials connectors, the chemical cleaner still helps the sound from my system.

If you have made extra effort or spent extra money because quality sound matters to you, then all this adds up to the idea that paying carefull attention to the quality of your connections is warranted in your system.

Copper oxidizes, copper oxide is not conductive, enough said.

jneutron
01-24-2006, 06:26 AM
Solder has approximately 11 to 15 % of the conductivity of copper, depending on the alloy constituents.

Solder creeps under pressure.

I do not recommend tinning the end of speaker wires if they are to be compressed to complete the connection. This will result in very rapidly degradation of the electrical conductivity of the joint. This is a fact which has been learned via experience.

Copper oxide is non conductive?? Hmmm..

Cheers, John