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In Reply to: RE: PCOCC Direction posted by John V on April 12, 2012 at 23:24:38
Chris Klein of Tel Wire does intensive listening tests to determine what direction his OCC wire sounds best when placed from source to load. It's likely a more subtle thing for OCC wire vs. typical OFC since a substantial lack of so many grain boundaries decreases the effect, which is also the reason why I don't usually choose cryo'd OCC wire when given an option to order non-cryo'd OCC wire.
An important thing for any kind of wire is to orient the return wire in the opposite direction of the signal wire, so when the finished cable is tested by ear in each direction (paying special attention to soundstage height), both wires are in correct relationship with each other. Otherwise, one wire will always be placed in the least desirable direction.
Follow Ups:
Thanks Duster and other helpful posters.
I've been told by two suppliers of OCC or PCOCC that it's not directional.
Thus my question re single crystal wire in light of my experience that it is (though subtle: don't know if I'd like to be blind tested).
Today I tested new PCOCC speaker cable and believe it is - its a bit difficult to do quick turn arounds on speaker cable in my setup and thus I say 'I believe it is.'
You think single crsytal wire is unaffected by cryoing?
Your last paragraph: return wire in the opposite direction. It would be interesting to know if commercial producers do so.
LOL!All 6N wire starts off with an ingot in a vacuum sealed pouch (I contacted Nippon Mining and they confirmed this, and as a matter of fact was the only way they sold 6N copper). Once you break that seal it starts absorbing air immediately. Once you draw wire through mechanical dies, it is no longer 6N. If the company drawing the wire does not maintain special dies solely for the 6N copper and not draw them in a vacuum atmosphere, the drawing of regular copper and other metals will have contaminated those dies even further.
In other words, all claims of 6N wire is akin to McD's claims of 1/4 pound BEFORE cooking. The only manufacturers who may truly have a 6N final product are those companies which hot draws the wire in a vacuum atmosphere (Acoustic Zen and Harmonic Technology). Even those products are subject to deterioration by exposure to air prior to insulating.
One prominent wire manufacturer claims that the chief advantage of cryogenic treatment is that the cryo treatment literally shrinks the metal, thereby forcing out any atmospheric gasses imbedded in the metal from the drawing process or from the casting of the ingot (non 6N ingots). Typically you can raise regular electrolytic copper (3N pure) to OHFC (4N pure) by cryoing the wire. Even if starting from a 6N ingot, you would be hard pressed to arrive at 4N purity after mechanically drawing down the ingot. The ingot goes through too many dies in order to arrive at the final gauge.
YMMV, of course,
Stu
PS. You maybe interested to know how they make the 6N copper and silver. A purified ingot goes through a vacuum chamber in which the ingot is subjected to a narrow strip heater. It moves very slowly through the chamber and the heater is restricted to only a small portion of the ingot. The impurities tend to stay within the near molten section. As the ingot slowly moves through the heater, the hot section slowly moves towards the rear of the ingot. After they finish the pass, the final inch or so of the ingot is cut off and the process repeated in order to further purify the copper.
Remember that in chemistry, reagent grade is 99.9% pure and that is generally regarded as being the typical purest grade available. A 99.9999% purity is truly extraordinary and it is mind boggling to me that such purity can be made commercially available. Still, any atmospheric exposure would be detrimental to that purity. Even if insulated air can creep along the insulation metal interface and eventually corrode the metal. IIRC, Tara labs had a special paint to seal the insulation/metal interface at the termination in order to limits this creep along the insulation. The issue would be worse for the typical audiophile teflon insulation, since teflon does not stick t the copper (or silver).
Edits: 04/16/12 04/16/12
The rest is mumbo jumbo and gives audiokooks with OCD something to do.
Hook the things up and quit fiddling with them. They may become very subtly directional after they've been installed for a while. This property will reverse itself after some playing in the other direction. Every time you swap orientation, it will sound different for a while, then revert.
Directional arrows on the jackets of commercial wire are important for IC's which may have a telescoping ground connection (shield connected at one end, not the other). On speaker wire, it means nothing other than the manufacturer is having a little joke on you.
Peace,
Tom E
The benefit of cryo'ing is the effect on crystal grain boundaries, so the grain-free structure of single crystal copper does not strike me as a candidate for cryo treatment.
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