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Copper .. good .. better .. best

Posted by dhrab (A) on August 2, 2017 at 05:39:43

In Reply to: Eizz and CMC binding posts?? posted by Tweaker456 on August 1, 2017 at 10:36:23:

Copper in it's purest form is to soft to be used at 100% so it is commonly alloyed with other metals to .. lets say stiffen it up enough to be workable ... I think the word is malleable

For audiophiles there is a good .. better .. best hierarchy with the lowest and worst sounding being Brass which is 60% copper and 40% zinc ... the real audiophile quality level IMO is B92 Phosphorous Bronze which is approximately 90% copper and 10% Tin and the best sounding at least to my ear is the Beryllium's which are mid 90% copper and approximately 5% Beryllium

The difference to my ear is clearly audible as the worst sounding are the Home Depot spec grade Brass outlets ... moving up the scale a Phosphorous Bronze units like a Jena Labs sounds much cleaner and the best I think are the Beryllium based units like the UN-plated Oyaide's or the PS Audio Premier Port which is Beryllium based and the outlets I use everywhere

As you move up the good ..better .. best scale I feel the improvement does not come from the higher content of copper but the lower content of degrading alloy .. the lower the alloy content the less degrading is incurred ... that's why I feel the best sounding Beryllium's have the least amount of alloy vs the Brass which has the highest amount of degrading alloy

I think the Chinese are trying to communicate which and how much alloy is used in their connectors when they say ... Red Copper or Yellow Copper ... but I doubt any are pure copper as it would be to soft

Plating's are a whole other story but you wouldn't want anything with a Nickle under-lament to make the Gold stick as the Nickle will create unwanted magnetism degrading the signal

One last factoid B20 Phosphorous Bronze is approximately 80% copper and 20% Tin ... this mix is used to make Bells ... like church bells and the likes .. the lower copper content must be cheaper to produce

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