Cable Asylum: Re: Thorsten..... by Thorsten

Hi,

> you start your post by asking us to face facts, then go on to
> provide none beyond a bit of basic chemistry.

So, a bit of sanity is needed.

> You are not privvy to either cable company's manufacturing
> processes or sources of materials.

No. However, I would suggest that you try finding someone who is able to reliably and based on industry standard techniques to certify ANY metal to more than four nines purity. Any claims of six nines are AFAIK pure Science Fiction as there is no real way to evaluate such purity. You may be able to get four nines silver, but it is going to be VERY hard. Try getting six nines....

> It would be trivial to draw cable under an inert atmosphere,

Would it? Ever been to suitable foundaries. I used to work in a Steelwork (servicing the process control systems) where very high grade steel was made, contious cast and in some cases under protective atmosphere. Trust me, it is NOT trivial. And if you are talking about smelting and refining any metal to such extreme purities as mentioned the whole process would have to be under protective atmospheres without any exposure to air EVER untill the wire is coated.

If the wire could really be PROVEN to be cemically 99.999999% copper (as claimed) the wire is worth any asking price simply for that.

> You have never listened to or evaluated either cable under
> consideration.

That was not my point anyway. I have heard and read many claims of high purity metal use in cables and find them simply ludicrous. I'm not even singeling NO and HMS out here, the whole industry is guilty of playing this number game.

> Why not? I assume you have data to back up your claim, say a test
> of a single cable structure built using different metal purities
> and extrusion techniques.

I have done exactly that. I found that higher purity metal was not inherently better, but long crystal contionous cast wire even of relatively poor purity (99.97%) was.

> Personally I've never read such an evaluation but would be
> interested to do so.

Do one yourself. Get the wires - you can two or three nines copper magnet wire from several sources and lower purity almost anywhere, also continous cast wire (make sure to examine the crystal structure under a microscope if you are not sure) - of the same gauge and made the same interconnect with them.

I found also that prolonged burn in at elevated current levels severely reduced the differences between the different cables.

Later T