Acoustic wires: technical features, types

Acquiring acoustic wires for the audio system, it is necessary to proceed primarily from the budget possibilities. Since the cost of some types of such cables can be quite high. If your acoustics belongs to devices of inexpensive class, then you should not think too much about the choice of wires, the simplest ones will do. But if you have a serious system, high-quality speakers, a powerful sound amplifier, then you should pay serious attention to the choice of cable.

Acoustic wire: technical features

The decisive value for this type of cable is its resistance. That is, the lower the value of the resistance of the wire, the higher, better the signal, which is transmitted through it. This parameter depends on the material of the cable, on its diameter and, of course, on the length. The acoustic wire is a pair of insulated metal strands with interconnected shells. The most popular are cables made of copper, consisting of 20 cores woven with each other. Each such wire is characterized by low resistance. The cross-section of the conductors is small, and the total resistance is lower than that of a single wire with the same diameter. These acoustic wires allow the propagation of the signal to reach a speed close to the speed of light. However, a thick cable is recommended to use when its length does not exceed three meters. If the length of the core is three meters and the diameter is 2.5 mm, its resistance will be practically zero. When thin acoustic wires with a diameter of 0.5 mm are used (or they are too long), then the cable resistance will be commensurate with the impedance of the amplifier and the speakers. As a result , the power of the sound amplifier will be spent on overcoming the resistance of the wire, that is, some of the power does not reach the speakers, which leads to a decrease in sound. In order for the speaker system to work with the least loss, it is recommended to use a cable with a core diameter of at least 2.5-4 mm, and as short as possible.

Types of acoustic wires

1. OFC - high-purity oxygen-free copper cable.

2. OSS is a wire made of single-crystal copper.

3. Composite (composite) cable - consists of several metals. Such wires are covered with a layer of tin or silver, or both.

4. Combined cable - impurities are added to the metal, for example, carbon.

5. Twisted pair.

How does insulating material affect the cable?

When choosing acoustic wires, one should pay attention to the material of the insulation coating. Teflon is considered the best. Especially appreciated is the insulation of such a low-density material (or foamed). Polypropylene is considered somewhat worse than Teflon, but much better than polyvinyl chloride, which is the most common in our day. Polyvinyl chloride is the cheapest material used to insulate power and acoustics wires. It has a parasitic effect of accumulation of charge, respectively, this greatly affects the sound quality (makes it inexpressive). The longer this cable, the stronger the effect.