"The Cable Budget Guide" by Chris

mostly contains very good, common-sensical recommendations, but for some reason Audiophile people seem unable to grasp a basic truth:

The prupose, and the ONLY PURPOSE, for Oxygen Free Copper (OFC) is to allow copper to be formed into generator windings without cracking. Electrically, OFC and standard copper are identical. So unless you think your copper speaker wires and interconnects are at risk of cracking, skip the OFC and save yourself some hype and some money.

B/t/w I do have significant experience with power generators. 10 years ago I was the engineer who approved the EE's generator designs. My data comes from the number 1 manufacturer of power generating equipment including gas and steam turbines and generators. You know the name.

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Originally Posted by Mash

mostly contains very good, common-sensical recommendations, but for some reason Audiophile people seem unable to grasp a basic truth:

The prupose, and the ONLY PURPOSE, for Oxygen Free Copper (OFC) is to allow copper to be formed into generator windings without cracking. Electrically, OFC and standard copper are identical. So unless you think your copper speaker wires and interconnects are at risk of cracking, skip the OFC and save yourself some hype and some money.

B/t/w I do have significant experience with power generators. 10 years ago I was the engineer who approved the EE's generator designs. My data comes from the number 1 manufacturer of power generating equipment including gas and steam turbines and generators. You know the name.

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I doubt you can get copper wire that is not oxygen free as that is part of the process, according to Belden. The copper is annealed in a non-oxygeb atmosphere.

It seems to me that when copper is smelted, oxygen is boiled off. All oxides would become part of the slag that is eliminated from the ingots prior to manufacture of the wire itself. Any oxides remaining would appear on the surface. Of course there is no such thing as "oxygen free" copper. All copper will have some residual oxygen as well as nitrogen, carbon dioxide and other trace elements found in air. The only difference would be the degree of purity. I have not consulted any texts concerning the minimum level of chemical purity of copper the trade feels acceptable for use in wire for conducting electricity but I am sure it is considerable. However, for special scientific applications such as very precise measurements of very small signals under super low noise conditions, there may be special wires required such as oxygen fee silver, gold, or platinum. Who knows what some of these scientists in those white lab coats may dream up for their most exotic experiments. Fortuantely for all of us, electronic audio sound systems don't fall in this category. Any impurities show up as minor contributors to resistance which is insignificant given the circuit parameters and types of wire we use.

Mash, does your employer of ten years ago "bring good things to life"?

BTW, anybody know the difference between rod and wire? Wire and cable?

And talking about bringing good things to life, have you heard about one of our latest offerings, the LMS 100 ? It was announced last December. A 100 MW power plant that can be built in a few months, instead of the usual 1.25 years or more. The LMS 100 is a simple cycle design that comes in 4 flavors ranging from 44% efficiency to 50% efficiency with steam injection. Combined cycle plants run up to 58% efficiency, or 60% efficiency with our new H-technology. But combined cycle plants are far more complicated than simple cycle plants. I got to do some REALLY different things on the LMS 100. Trailblazing and Technology-changing were the labels given by others. Big fun, man!

I have worked with GE people on many projects including some large ones. The group I dealt with most recently was out of Parsippany NJ which I think had relocated some years back from West Orange. After my experience with them removing 16 PCB transformers from a large software development site in central New Jersey about 17 years ago, I was convinced that GE personnel are by far the best trained most knowledgable people in the electrical equipment industry. There seems to be no problem that they can't solve. That's why I recommended them as sole source on the last large electrical project I was involved with at my former major telecom employer, the very intricate and complicated turnkey replacement of 7 MCCs (about 150 to 200 starters and panelboards.) My successors reported to me that the entire project and all shutdowns went off without a hitch. No surprise to me at all.