Folks,
Lots to comment on; forgive me if I miss something.
John, nothing wrong with magnet wire. It sounds good, but if it's thick for carrying high currents from power supplies, it's fiddly to place, and although the enamel coating is tough I'm always leery about it shorting on something sharp. I never have this concern with 15A multistrand copper hookup wire, as the vinyl coating is quite thick and this wire is easy to bend/place. Andy's idea of putting teflon sleeve over magnet wire is good. For signal wire, you can't go past teflon CAT5E; it's cheap, I put in a bit with every kit now, and it sounds terrific. And BTW John, I posted off your TLP Nirvana upgrade a couple hours ago; it's in a padded bag, Air Mail, so you should have it about ten days with luck.
Silver wire is OK if it is pure. I have tried Tigadure British made silver coated copper wire with teflon insulation, and while this wire is marvellous in look and feel, the effect on the sound, even when used as power or earth interconnection, is horrific, adding a tizzy, bright gloss which is extremely fatigueing. Don't use it, ever; it's horrible. This wire is used extensively in aero-space, and also sold at high price by by a company called Whitemore in California. Theory; this wire is silver coated copper to a thickness of 40 microns, and developed for maximum current flow per unit mass with very stringent environmental demands, like the intense temperature and g-force extremes of space travel. I have a notion that the amalgam of silver on copper creates diodic interfaces which really mess up audio signals. Don't do it; looks like heaven, sounds like hell........
Sam, don't feel guilty about spending good money on resistors and caps and not much on wire. I'd say you've got it right, as wire is presently a fad and a fashion in audio and the price has risen commensurately.
As a general principle, and of course I should say YMMV, an upgrade needs to address component choices first, operating point second, and maybe wire last of all. I tend to tune everything by ear; most of my time goes into component choice and operating point once the topology/schematic has been figured out. I feel that the design is only mature when as many components as possible have been removed from the circuit. I was disappointed with the GK1 because there are so many caps in the front end; but Darl and I tried very hard to remove them, and every excision resulted in a one-legged presentation, so we HAD to put 'em back in! I am absolutely convinced that the best sonics come with elegant minimalism; generally I have noticed that this applies across all technologies. Complexity is easy, and often indicates incomplete or even flawed R&D. Simplicity, production repeatability, careful component selection results in higher reliability and lower cost and is the essence of good design.
Cheers,
Hugh
