What kind of internal wire should I use in my tube amp?

[pRC]

...wired backwards

Yeah, I read that post.

You just can't trust anyone anymore! Gotta do it yourself.

Seriously, I'm surprised that they did that, but at least they were consistent. As long as the construction and soldering is sound, it probably doesn't make that much difference.

If you rewire it yourself - you can do a lot of things that a manufacturer cannot due to cost constraints, like making your own coax, or teraing down all the iron and adding gaskets to dampen resonances, and replacing the hardware with brass to cut down on magnetic shorting. Like adding little sorbothane shock mounts to all the tube sockets.

But if a manufacturer tried to build to the same quality as Wardsweb or Phil Sieg, well, the amps would be $15k or more, maybe much more. Now I'm getting all contemplative and boring.

I'll try to find your equipment in the gallery, thanks for the reply!

My website with unfortunate DIY history is:
http://www.cognitivEvent.com/

/pRC

 

[MikE]

"I'll try to find your equipment in the gallery"

Hell with mine, I'd like to see you post your gear!

BTW - I already had someone rewire it locally. Funny thing, I think I liked it better the other way

MikE

EDIT: Just checked out the website - interesting stuff. Looks like we have another cable believer/tweaker on board. Another thing the footprint of our speakers are similiar, even they driver configuration and enclosures are different. I've heard good things about them but never had the pleasure of an audition.

 

[Kim G]

Welcome fellow REEFER!

pRC,
Welcome to AK. I clicked on your webpage, what a surprise to find your reef page. I've been reefing for a few years, talk about a consuming and expensive hobby, but the beauty cannot be matched. I read your were having calcium problems, and you were dosing an additive, have you ever considered a calcium reactor? They are a very simple design and an easy DIY. You don't really need to worry about your calcium too much if you only have softies. Make the jump to hard corals, and it's a whole new ballgame. Of course I'd recommend upping your lighting before venturing too deep. Reefing was my passion for many years before crossing over to the darkside - TUBES-
If you ever have ANY questions about your set-up, help, advice or just would like to chat Reefs, please PM me.
A 75 is quite an undertaking for a newbie, but the bigger the better. I have a 150 and a 135 tied together on two different floors with a 100 gallon sump, DIY downdraft skimmer and DIY calc reactor. Endless possibilties. Gotta love it! Seeing that you are very handy, the DIY projects would be a piece of cake, plus the satisfaction of designing and making them yourself.
I better stop rambling, sorry to crap on the wire thread.

Kim

 

[prix]

Re: "I'll try to find your equipment in the gallery"

Originally posted by MikE


BTW - I already had someone rewire it locally. Funny thing, I think I liked it better the other way

Are you talking about the Wonder Wire in the audio signal path? You think you liked it better that way? Maybe that's good news for my purchase of Wonder Wire for my audio signal path.

 

[MikE]

What I'm saying is that the differences were discrete. That immediately after I reversed the wiring I felt it sounded a bit more edgy. Like I said all a long, I never had a problem with the amp itself [in original state] . My compliant was that directives weren't followed by the manufacturer. And now some months after listening to the amp - rewired - I enjoy it as much as before. Was that do to a chance in me or the wire? I can't say with confidence. Regardless the difference between the two configurations were very subtle. Certainly not something I'd lose sleep over, but if I hadn't "fixed it" I'd always wonder... what if.

MikE

 

[pRC]

wire burn-in

Physicist Richard Feynman wrote about a 'principle of least effort' and I believe that this is what is behind the sometimes hotly debated phenomenom of burn-in.

The example Gleick used in his biography of Feynman to explain this principle is that of a lifeguard on a beach with a person in need of rescue down-beach and out to sea. Does the lifeguard get there faster by running along the beach as far as possible and swimming the least distance? - by running straight to the water and swimming longer? - or by some angle in between? The answer is always 'some angle in between'.

This is what light does between your eye and an object in water, and that is why a pencil appears to 'break' when placed in a glass of water so that the end is above the water line.

In any conductor we have all of the usual electronics suspects at work - resistance, inductance, electromotive force, capacitance, impedance, semi-conductor effects along grain boundaries and between conductor strands, etc., you name it... I think that there is some micro forming going on in the conductor as the path of least effort for the electrons matures - over time the dieletrics re-form, grain boundaries change, forces are aligned so that the path improves, and that is what some people hear. This also explains why some break-in has to be repeated when cables are moved - manipulating the cables changes the diaelectric positions, and even the grain structure where cold-forming takes place (copper, for example, work-hardens as it is bent, this is a molecular change to the copper lattice).

Anyway, I can be wrong. This is just food for thought.

/pRC

 

[Hi-FiGuy]

I build tube amps every day, I only use silver plated copper wire with a teflon jacket. None of my amps are lacking in bass, when I test the amplifier the frequency response is 5 Hz to 70 kHz ruler flat.

 

[w3jn]

That's enough. A bunch of thread crappings and unnecessary insults deleted.