Tweakers' Asylum

Posted by Jon Risch (B) on March 25, 2007 at 20:39:18

In Reply to: why teflon insulation? posted by jarthel on March 24, 2007 at 22:43:01:

You should have searched the Cable Asylum.

See:
http://www.geocities.com/jonrisch/i1.htm

and
Teflon properties:
http://209.208.232.71/pages/Insulation.cfm
and
http://www.polymerplastics.com/fluoro_fep.shtml
http://www.polymerplastics.com/fluoro_tefa.shtml

http://www.asiinstr.com/technical/Dielectric Constants.htm
OR
http://www.asiinstr.com/technical/Dielectric Constants.htm

The simple english explanation is that a lot of folks have discovered that teflon (usually a form of FEP teflon, as this does not involve any silver plating, or other potential negative issues) ends up sounding more neutral than many of the other common cable insulations.

Is it a "night and day" kind of sonic difference? I do not promote this kind of stance or interpretation, but it typically does make a subtle and worthwhile difference in all but the least resolving systems.

Some folks do not think that it is worth paying for, or worth waiting for it to break-in/settle-down, but it is a subtle thing like the difference between the sonic images of a soundstage being 'stuck' to the speakers, and only spread out between them in a narrow strip, and the sonic image floating free from the speakers, and spreading from wall to wall and with depth deeper than the room walls. A small thing to be sure, and something there is no simple meter to read for a measure of that kind of quality, but something that can make or break the 'illusion' of a live musical event occuring within your listening space, or the illusion of being transported to such a space.

Unfortunately, no one can tell you if replacing the wires inside an amp, or a speaker, or replacing all the interconnect and speaker cables in your system with high performance wires and cables that utilize teflon or something equally transparent, will result in audio nirvana or even just that simple 'ungluing' of the sonic image from the speaker boxes.

Usually, if none of the wires or cables are of sufficient quality, then replacing one cable, or re-wiring one component is much more difficult to hear in isolation, but it is possible for such a minimal change to be noticed and appreciated. If you can currently hear subtle changes with the substitution of different power amps, preamps, sources, etc., then it is more likely that you will be able to notice and appreciate such changes to the cables and wires in your system.

Jon Risch