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Silver solder or tin/lead solder

58.182.113.74
Posted on May 5, 2016 at 10:10:58
pc123v
Audiophile

Posts: 225
Joined: February 6, 2014
 Gonna terminate my speaker cables ... Seeking feedback on whether there would be any sonic differences in using silver or standard tin/lead (60/40?) solder. I have tin/lead on hand already and will use them if there's no diff in SQ. Seeking less HF energy of the two. Thanks!

 

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RE: Silver solder or tin/lead solder , posted on May 5, 2016 at 13:03:43
cabelok
Audiophile

Posts: 150
Location: Phoenix
Joined: September 9, 2015
 Silver WTB 4% Ag solder (low temperature), there are a number of vendors who sell short lengths on eBay. It's expensive if you buy a whole roll. If you use eutectic (all the solder liquefies at once) you'll need quite a big soldering iron (depending on what AWG you want) to solder. You don't say if you are tinning the ends or soldering into a terminal.

 

RE: Silver solder or tin/lead solder , posted on May 5, 2016 at 13:18:43
pc123v
Audiophile

Posts: 225
Joined: February 6, 2014
 Should have indicated that. I will be terminating with bananas plugs or spades.

 

RE: Silver solder or tin/lead solder , posted on May 5, 2016 at 13:37:28
cabelok
Audiophile

Posts: 150
Location: Phoenix
Joined: September 9, 2015
 What AWG? Try and use pure copper lugs or silver, no brass.

 

Do a Search on Solder and on fluxes, posted on May 5, 2016 at 19:31:10
Jon Risch
Bored Member

Posts: 6659
Joined: April 4, 2000
Contributor
  Since: March 1, 1999
 This topic has been discussed quite a bit in the past, both in Cables and Tweakers.

Quick 2 cents from me:
I have been recommending good ole Kester 63/37 tin/lead eutectic solder with the 44 flux for many years. Makes good solder joints and hard to screw it up.

However, there are as many esoteric alloys and fluxes as you could wish to investigate. Some of the brand name specialty audio solders, such as Cardas Quad eutectic, WBT silver solder, Wonder Solder, etc. are also quite good (they also have good quality fluxes) and could be an option.

What ever you do, DON'T use generic 60/40 solder with an unknown flux formulae for audio connections!

BTW, RE the connectors you plan to use, spade lugs are far and away superior to even the best banana plugs, and the best of the spades use a compression washer to assure long term tightness and signal integrity.
An example of such a spade lug is the Kimber Postmaster or the WBT spade lugs.

Good luck with our project.


Jon Risch

 

RE: Silver solder or tin/lead solder , posted on May 5, 2016 at 20:40:18
pc123v
Audiophile

Posts: 225
Joined: February 6, 2014
 It's 11awg speaker cable. Intend to solder to banana lugs.

 

Well don't use the WBT, posted on May 7, 2016 at 04:56:29
Cpk
Audiophile

Posts: 1518
Location: PA
Joined: May 13, 2005
 That is going in the opposite direction sonically then you are looking for.

If you want to solder use Cardas and a nice gold plated spade. Or as an alternative a spade and a crimp. Harbor freight has some hydraulic crimpers at reasonable $. That would be superior sonically to any soldered connection.

 

RE: Well don't use the WBT, posted on May 7, 2016 at 14:54:13
Duster
Manufacturer

Posts: 17117
Location: Pacific Northwest
Joined: August 25, 2002
 Perhaps WBT decided to feature 4% silver content solder in order to provide a bit more sparkle for their warm sounding gold plated rca connectors, including the low-mass WBT NextGen.

 

RE: Well don't use the WBT, posted on May 7, 2016 at 16:40:06
Tweaker456
 Hum, A bit more sparkle. Might that be possibly perceived as brighter?? Not saying bright, just brighter. Just sayin.

 

RE: Well don't use the WBT, posted on May 7, 2016 at 17:41:22
Duster
Manufacturer

Posts: 17117
Location: Pacific Northwest
Joined: August 25, 2002
 "Think" energy level vs. brightness. Treble energy can be a good thing if the top end is clean, detailed, and airy. Brightness represents dreadful sounding (and feeling) distortions.

 

RE: Well don't use the WBT, posted on May 7, 2016 at 22:01:54
beautox
Manufacturer

Posts: 366
Location: New Plymouth
Joined: July 9, 2013
 I would not suggest that you pick gold plated things to solder to. Gold contaminates solder joints. e.g. NASA will not accept solder joints to gold plated items.

http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayFulltext?type=1&fid=326392&jid=MAM&volumeId=11&issueId=S02&aid=326391

 

RE: Silver solder or tin/lead solder , posted on May 8, 2016 at 11:12:49
pc123v
Audiophile

Posts: 225
Joined: February 6, 2014
 Thanks everyone for your input and help...always very deeply appreciated.

 

RE: Well don't use the WBT, posted on May 8, 2016 at 13:00:45
Duster
Manufacturer

Posts: 17117
Location: Pacific Northwest
Joined: August 25, 2002
 I have rarely encountered a solder joint failure due to brittleness, even gold plated spades involving direct mechanical stress which is not an issue when terminating cable connectors with an adequate strain relief mechanism. Cold solder joints have been a chief concern when soldering a pure copper base metal plated with gold, but careful pre-tinning often solves that issue, or simply allowing the soldering iron tip to linger a bit longer than is usual in order for the gold to be better integrated into the solder joint.

 

RE: Well don't use the WBT, posted on May 10, 2016 at 11:58:39
Crazy Dave
Audiophile

Posts: 14371
Location: East Coast
Joined: October 4, 2001
 The conditions is space give a new meaning to the term "cold solder joint". These conditions are not likely to occur with anything that inmates in this forum would likely solder. If it did occur, a bad solder joint would be the least of our problems!

Dave

 

RE: Well don't use the WBT, posted on May 10, 2016 at 19:58:42
beautox
Manufacturer

Posts: 366
Location: New Plymouth
Joined: July 9, 2013
 98% of Nasa electronics is ground based.

 

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