[jazzerdave]

When you buy your wire, specify you want "dead soft" hardness.

Already have the wire, but it is dead soft.  It should be significantly more malleable that the magnet wire I'm using for prototyping/practice.

[cheap-Jack]

Hi.

When you buy your wire, specify you want "dead soft" hardness.  I.E., fully annealed.  This will make your task much much easier -- take it from someone who has made crocheted silver cable necklaces!   Even fine silver softens substantially when annealed.  It's going to work-harden when you make it up into cable, of course, but the end result will be much more pliable than if you started with hard or half-hard wire to begin with.

Ideally, you'd anneal the finished cables, too, but you probably don't have the equipment you would need to do that.

Jewelry silver or Sterling silver is not pure silver (normally only 92% silver),
pretty hard for wear & tear during wearing. No good for audio

WE need 0.9999% min. pure silver which is already pretty soft,. No need further annealing. OK?

All my audio interconnects & power cord for my tube power amp are built with 4N purity silver wires of German origin. Pretty soft, no need more softening.

Needless to say, they all sound superb!!!!


c-J

[mumbles]

Hi There,
I am a goldsmith with 30 years experiece.
Annealing silver wire is pretty challenging not my favourite thing to do.
So I do not reommend it un less there is someone with an anealing oven and then  experience is still critical.
I am a big fan of pure silver and have made lots of solid core interconnects and power cords.
The improvement has always blown me away.
And it is so easy
Maybe try the wire you have to see if you like it.
Or sell off this stuff and get some pure silver.
Most refineries are happy for the business and you can stipulate the shape and size of the wire as well as the temper.
What kind of design are you contemplating?
Best of luck  I hope it is fun

[jazzerdave]

Jewelry silver or Sterling silver is not pure silver (normally only 92% silver),
pretty hard for wear & tear during wearing. No good for audio

Yep, Sterling silver is normally about 92.5% silver (I have a trombone made from sterling silver).  Fine silver - available from many jewlery suppliers - is 3-4N purity silver.  The 3-4N fine silver is available in dead-soft, half-hard, and pretty much any hardness in which sterling is available.

Maybe try the wire you have to see if you like it.
Or sell off this stuff and get some pure silver.

To which wire are you referring?

[Chromisdesigns]

Hi.
Jewelry silver or Sterling silver is not pure silver (normally only 92% silver),
pretty hard for wear & tear during wearing. No good for audio

WE need 0.9999% min. pure silver which is already pretty soft,. No need further annealing. OK?

All my audio interconnects & power cord for my tube power amp are built with 4N purity silver wires of German origin. Pretty soft, no need more softening.

Needless to say, they all sound superb!!!!


c-J

I didn't say anything about sterling -- I was talking about fine (99.9x) silver.  There is still a big difference between hard and annealed states.  OP says he was using dead soft wire, which is what he should do.  It WILL work-harden noticeably when he twists it.

I am also a goldsmith, and have made quite a few yards of hand-crocheted silver cable.  I would NEVER try it with sterling, only fine silver, and it definitely DOES need to be annealed after making.  OP should be OK with his speaker cables as long as he doesn't twist them too tightly.

[Chromisdesigns]

Hi There,
I am a goldsmith with 30 years experiece.
Annealing silver wire is pretty challenging not my favourite thing to do.
So I do not reommend it un less there is someone with an anealing oven and then  experience is still critical.

Hey, Mumbles --

Nice to hear from a fellow tradesman.  You'll notice I didn't try to tell him how to go about annealing his cables...

[mumbles]

Hi There,
I was responding to Cheap jack but I think I was just excited to hear you guys talk about DIY silver speaker wires.
Silver wires have worked so well for me .
I even had the chance to test my speaker wires  against Nordost's top of the line which I used to have on a pedestal  because I think the manufacturing is so brilliant.
I did not expect DIY silver to sound better but it did.
I am curious about your  German 4n' s wire?
Is it a brand name? Is it still available?

[jazzerdave]

Not that I need any more silver wire any time soon, but I'd be interested in learning more about your German 4N silver wire source.

[cheap-Jack]

Hi.

Not that I need any more silver wire any time soon, but I'd be interested in learning more about your German 4N silver wire source.

Since I custom-build audio interconnects & power cords for audiophiles for money. I don't want to publicize my silver wires contact, but please send me a private message via AC & I can tell you privately.

For more noticeable sound improvement, I would suggest you silver up yr signal interconnects & power cords first before loudspeaker cables which is at the end of the audio chain, the lower sonic priority vs signal interconnects.

c-J