Litz vs stranded?

[TimF]

I think maybe I didn’t word my own stupid question properly. My sincere apologies. I will indeed bow out now, sorry for the interruption.

 

[whoaru99]

I keep reading about skin effect on wire used in audio applications. I was under the impression that skin effect was an AC, not DC, phenomena.

Anyone care to sort this out for me?

Sure.

Your audio signal is an AC signal.

 

[mcgjohn]

yep, Litz is great stuff. Have used it for years. You can buy litz from New England Fine wire out on the east coast, but its not cheap.

 

[conductivity]

Litz wire is for the skin effect, that only makes a significant difference for much higher than audible frequencies. A hi-fi system transfers frequencies that are not affected by normal copper cables in any audible way. I don't need higher than 100 kHz bandwidth for my power amp, because a much higher bandwidth is worse value for money and it is for transmitting music anyway.

However, litz wire has parasitic capacitance because of the individual insulation design, and this is not exactly what hi-fi is normally about. Because stranded copper works just fine for transparent audio transmission. But parasitic capacitance can make an audible effect from litz wire I believe.