I have been experimenting with tubular speaker conductors made from high conductivity copper. I have learned that electricity wants to travel in a tubular pattern so it seemed logical to make a conductor tubular. I made the tubes large enough so that all the frequencies were reproduced and I spaced the positive and negative tubes at least ten diameters apart to eliminate capacitive effects. The SoundPipers have rotatable leads on the ends of each conductor so that you can shift them around to get to any binding post position that you might encounter. I have found that an open tube sounds better that a closed or filled tube. It needs to breathe it seems. I try to keep the power amps at least 36" away from the speakers so this lenght of SoundPiper tube seems to be ideal. The SoundPiper Tubular Conductors are straight runs of tube and are only flexible at the adjustable lead ends. They look very high-tech (clear dielectric so that you can see the bright copper finish) and sort of remind me of the old Frankenstein electrodes.
Robert A. Genna

 Re: SoundPiper Tubular Speaker Conductors - Jon Risch 17:34:02 7/24/99 (3)
 Re: SoundPiper Tubular Speaker Conductors - Robert A. Genna 18:43:44 7/24/99 (2)
 Re: SoundPiper Tubular Speaker Conductors - Myles B. Astor 18:44:59 7/25/99 (0)

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 Re: SoundPiper Tubular Speaker Conductors - Jon Risch 17:34:02 7/24/99 (3)
 Re: SoundPiper Tubular Speaker Conductors - Robert A. Genna 18:43:44 7/24/99 (2)
 Re: SoundPiper Tubular Speaker Conductors - Myles B. Astor 18:44:59 7/25/99 (0)
 Re: SoundPiper Tubular Speaker Conductors - Jon Risch 06:54:36 7/25/99 (0)
 Re: SoundPiper Tubular Speaker Conductors - Rod M 13:13:36 7/24/99 (0)

Thanks,
Rod

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Rather than delete your post, I felt it would be more punishing to comment on the concepts behind these 'soundpipers' of yours.

First, anyone can go down to the hardware store and get some gas line copper tubing, and have there own 'soundpipers'. The issues here are: copper purity, freedom from surface oxidation, and long term stability of the copper surface. You do appear to have addressed the long term issue by coating the pipes, but what assurance is there that they won't corrode after a period of time, espcially if they were just sprayed with acrylic or laquer (neither of which is a great dielectric) after being sanded and possibly polished. The polish or sanding could have damaged the surface of the copper.

Second, speaker cables don't care about capacitance, the parameter of importance is low inductance. By spacing your pipes apart so much, they will have a relatively high inductance, and would as a consequence tend to sound soft and dull, unless of course, the copper in the pipe was of such an impure grade that they had some false brightness due to that, but two wrongs don't make a right.

Third, it is likely that the pipes might sound better if filled with sand, so as to damp any tendency toward mechanical resonance, which with such large and relatively heavy runs of copper, would tend toward a lower register twang. Any livelyness you hear is probably due to said resonances, and represent a deviation from accurate signal transfer and neutrality.

Fourth, these rotatable leads don't sound like very good connections, and if they truly pivot, then the contact CAN'T be that firm or low resisitance. If they are merely flexible leads, then at the very least, you now have a discontinuity from your tubular profile, and possibly a solder joint, at best a crimp, and maybe worst of all, a bolt or other mechanical connection that will corrode and oxidize over time.

Doesn't sound like anythig worth giving up zip cord for to me.

Jon Risch

An Inductor can store magnetic energy just like a Capacitor stores electrical energy but coils or loops usually act as better inductors than a straight wire. Keeping inductors apart will reduce the mututal magnetic inductance between them as would keeping Capacitors apart would reduce the electrical capacitive effect between. There is no charge for this lesson.
Sincerely,
Robert A. Genna

I suggest you read this post:
/audio/cables/messages/17.html

and try to remember that the mutual inductance of a pair of current carrying wires that are carrying OPPOSITE polarities will tend to cancel the self-inductance of each indivual wire.

Perhaps you expected a more flowery explanation or something dripping with math, but I always try to write so that layman reading these posts have at least a decent chance of understanding what is going one if they give it some thought. I am an EE, who has specialized in acoustics, I design speakers for the Pro market, and have an interest in all aspects of audio. I have made seeking a better understanding of audio cables one of my hobbies over the years, and have firm grasp of as many of the principles that are involved as we are currently aware of.

I would strongly suggest you quit posting immediately, as you will just make things worse by trying to argue with me while having a flawed understanding of physics and how it pertains to audio cables.

Jon Risch

I think the greatest punishment here is your ignorance of Electrical Engineering. >>

Robert,

That's not fair. Jon not only has as much experience but more than most when it comes to cable design and measurement

I suggest you get ahold of the article in the Spring issue of Ultimate Audio entitled "Do Measurements Matter?" George Cardas gives Jon a lot of credit for advancing the SOTA in cable measurements.

If I may quote from the piece, "There is a very interesting AES paper presented by Jon Risch at the latest AES convention, in which he explains a system for measuring cable distortiosing a TEF-20 and a PHI seris of tones (AES preprint #4803, "A New Class of in-Band Multi-tone Test Signals," AES website, http://www.aes.org)It clearly shows difference between cable and cabling systems, such as biwiring. His system plots harmonic distortion in cable current transfer.

George then goes on how he is working on a commercial implementation of his system.Jon has also written software programs for these measurements.

I think you owe Jon an apology.

Myles Astor
Publisher
Ultimate Audio