True, that’s why I didn’t say it was a problem, just that I experience the difference ……
…… a bit like friction, I suppose ?
Excellent stuff
Why then do silver conductors in power cables sound different than copper cables, insulation being the same?
Do they?
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If they do, it might be because silver is a better conductor of electricity than copper.
But according to quantum theory, the power isn’t conducted through the metal but through electromagnetic fields around the conductor. Am I understanding that correctly?
Energy doesn’t equal electricity
Your response is a bit shallow, it doesn’t answer the question; if with AC electrons move only a few mm back and forth in a wire, then there is no “flow” of electricity. Likewise, if power from the power company only gets as far as a step down transformer, and there being no direct wire connection to the other side of that transformer, then “electricity” is not flowing from power station to your home (doesn’t stop them billing you for it), but some sort of electromagnetic energy jumps through air to the other side of the transformer and apparently continues in air around the conductor (where the electrons only move back and forth a few mm, 50-60 times a second) so evidently, power for your equipment is not from the electricity in the conductor but from electromagnetic flow around the wire and insulation, even through air apart from the wire, so why would silver conductor in power cord cause equipment to sound different to a copper conductor in the power cord?
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Perhaps the choice of material used in the insulation and/or the geometry of the cable matters, and the conductor doesn’t? Perhaps declarations of the superior sound attained when using pure copper, silver-coated pure copper, pure silver or gold-plated pure silver is nothing but puffing to justify the high price of power cords?
I think the meaning people have drawn from the first video is not complete. The 1 light second conductor is there to pose alternative answers to the question about how long it takes the energy to travel from the battery to the LED.
The mathematical physics treatment involves summing the energy flowing through all paths from the battery to the LED. The majority of the energy flows along the most direct route. The role of the conductor is to create the electromagnetic field and when the switch is closed it propagates according to Maxwell’s equations. If there was an insulator instead of a conductor the electrons could not play their part.
Real world problems are usually more complex so the exact nature of our HiFi cables make a difference. Impurities will result in a degradation of the signal (electromagnetic field). The route the cable takes has to be built into the summation of the energy travelling from box to box and finally the speaker coils. Remember the example of the first transatlantic telegraph cable!
In a perfect world our HiFi electronics would be modelled for the internal energy transfers as well as the box to box ones! Naim can’t control how we put the boxes together and run the cables though.
Phil
The same basic concepts of energy flow underlie quantum electrodynamics. In that theory there are not just photons but electrons and other particles and neutrinos representing the quanta of the field. The field has conservation properties and symmetries it obeys, and conforms to Einstein’s relativistic principles. The newer Weak Nuclear force was introduced to explain an apparent symmetry breaking.
Accelerators are a means to crash particles into one another and thereby create intense localised electromagnetic fields. These fields are intense enough to transfer energy across the ‘nuclear barrier’ that holds together the constituents of atoms, protons, neutrons etc. Gluons are the equivalent of photons when considering the strong nuclear force which is understood as the exchange of virtual gluons (there are no all pervading forces in modern physics - force is only a manifestation of momentum transfer).
Hope you become fascinated by physics!
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“Remember the example of the first trans-Atlantic cables”
I am remembering, seems a conductive shield around the cable ruined it?
How does boxing our hi-fi equipment in conductive metal affect what is happening inside? Would encasing such in wood or Bakelite make an improvement?
Naim have to decide these things. We just judge the result. It’s complicated. It’s a mystery!
Probably not. I remember testing some phono cards at the factory, and to save having to slide the pre-amp in and out of the outer sleeve I just used it without. Trouble was, it sounded better with the sleeve on. Similarly, the perspex sleeves that were used to show off the innards at shows and displays looked cool but consensus within Naim was that they sounded much better with the extruded aluminium sleeves in place.
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I’m not going to watch the video again, but I think the problem was due to the armour being magnetic, not conducive.
Surrounding a transformer with magnetic steel is good thing. It helps to prevent interference with adjacent electronic equipment.
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They don’t call Richard ‘the Burndy Czar’ for nothing!
So, which, if any, power cords actually improve outcome and are worth the money?
I am happy with Naim’s. I also use MusicWorks Ultra G3 with sparkly bottom. The 500 goes into the wall and the rest into the G3. Lots of post on this subject.
Phil
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Just watched the first hour of Cox’s new BBC series, Universe.
Excellent music and sounds, wonderful graphics and photography, and a brilliant script and story that brings out what matters most about cosmology.
Brian Cox has excelled himself in this.
It beats all previous work in this vein that I’ve seen, including Carl Sagan, Brian Swimme, Neil de Grasse Tyson, Jim Alili Khan, et al.
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The valence electrons reside within the metal and are influenced by the atoms (nuclei and non-valence electrons) of the metal; the movement of the electrons causes an EM field to develop within and without the metal. This field (or rather the interaction of this field with other EM fields such as those within atoms) is responsible for the power transfer. It should also be noted that the EM field also influences the movement of the valence electrons that cause the field in the first place.
Thus both the metal (which affects the EM environment within the metal) and also the insulator and geometry of the circuit (which affects the EM environment outside the metal) have an effect.
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I use a Manticore turntable with Manticore power supply. Manticore advise that silver plated copper cable between mains plug and power supply improves sound quality, but advised that silver plated copper cable between power supply and turntable had no effect on sound quality.