![]() ![]() |
Audio Asylum Thread Printer Get a view of an entire thread on one page |
For Sale Ads |
In Reply to: Re: Solder joints as diode junctions? posted by Will R on July 02, 1999 at 15:04:29:
Hi there,The solder I use is UK made and "Multicore" brand....
I guess in solder as in other things there is also the matter of taste.
Later Thorsten
I made Vendetta Research preamps with Ersin multicore SN62. It's more than taste, but actual differences in the construction, purity, and type of rosin in the solder. There are textbooks written on solders and soldering.
Hi John,ThanX for that confirmation. This appears to be exactly what I have setteled for after quite a bit of testing.
While I was aware of quite a bit of work on the subject of metallurgy and techniques in solder and soldering, I never came across any references to audible differences or anything specifically pretaining to audio.
Do you have any references?
Ciao Thorsten
Of course not! Making audio equipment is like making automobiles. Not everything about a design will be in a book. This is why we have to 'try' different components and see if they work for our particular standard of perfection. I used to use plain 60-40 solder, then I heard about SN63 that removed a potential problem with cold joints, so I went to it. About 20 years ago, a friend with a MA in Inorganic Chemistry, told me about SN62. His explanation was that the silver in the solder effectively bypassed potential barriers made by the copper, lead and tin interface. Made sense to me, so I tried some. I bought Ersin, because it was the most available, but I found that SN62 was eutectic (like SN63), had a lower melting temperature than regular solder, and superior wetting properties that made for good looking solder joints. Years later, Dave Wilson, of Wilson Audio, tested a number of solders and found that Ersin SN62 was as good or better than all the solders tested at the time. He listened to soldered copper tabs, all of equal area. We don't publish this sort of thing for obvious reasons. In fact, we keep it confidential and treat it as a trade secret. This is how we came to use Ersin SN62, and still use it today. There are other quality solders; for example, Wonder Solder, which is a solder that Tektronix originally used for repair of its test equipment. Audible Illusions uses Wonder Solder to make its preamps.
This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors: