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Revisiting DIY IC, what gauge then? (Using Venhaus wire)

31.187.12.82

Japesgalore

Currently have a twisted pair IC from 31AWG GOLD, cotton tubing, terminated with Furutech 106Rs. They do sound great and were a massive step up from all the iterations I tried before and even when tested against big buck cables. They're only 40cm long.
In recent discussions about what wire to use for my sub, Alan Maher told me that 16awg was the right gauge to use for IC, no matter what the application. I asked him why, but he basically said 'everybody who's anybody knows this' and didn't see fit to explain why (which usually he does). I remember researching this when building the ICs in the first place and there were a lot of people saying how thinner wire is better, but I can't fault Alan's advice so would like to experiment with other another thickness of wire.
But will it be worth the trade-off? The pure gold I use really makes a nice sounding cable, especially that it doesn't need to be insulated in anything, just held in place by cotton. Chris Venhaus sells a range of OCC wires, copper and silver, using his proprietary insulation, from 24AWG to 18AWG. What would you guys use when making a simple two-wire twist? Different materials, silver for signal or return, or all silver? Different gauges - thicker for return? Chris if you are reading what would you advise?
Thanks

Edits: 06/07/12

Follow Ups:

RE: Revisiting DIY IC, what gauge then? (Using Venhaus wire) - rick_m 07:41:14 06/07/12 (1)
I would be inclined to stick with thin. I use 28awg cu magnet wire for interconnects. You can probably go thicker for sub-woofers since the frequencies involved have a greater skin depth, but I doubt it would be particularly better.

From my empirical testing long ago 16AWG is way too thick for full-range interconnects.

Regards, Rick
- RE: Revisiting DIY IC, what gauge then? (Using Venhaus wire) - pictureguy 19:47:34 06/10/12 (0)
  Agreed.....16 is just nutty large.
  Your approach is where I'd start...and probably end. 28? fine for an IC.
  Too much is never enough
AWG needs to fit metal and use - bartc 06:06:57 06/07/12 (0)
Can't generalize, IME, to all ICs for AWG.

First, as I recall a lot of people's experimentation here years ago, each metal combination seemed to require a different range of AWG. Silver seemed to need thicker to not sound too thin; copper thinner. Never worked with gold, so can't tell you. Copper alloys vary on this.

Second, I can't prove a thing, but the longer length that I see for subs, and the freq range suggest to me thicker than you would for other ICs. That's what I use. Alan's suggestion of 16 AWG makes sense to me for this particular application.

Third, Chris responds to requests from customers at his own website pretty regularly. He makes great wire and has experimented to determine what works best where. So ask him directly and I'd be very confident in his judgement, myself, having relied on him successfully before and finding that he doesn't try to sell you anything.

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