NOS Western Electric wire used for power cables??

Fuzzbutt17

On the list of "stupid" my number one is people that bundle several strands of a signal wire with improper insulation (like silk) to make a power cord.

Now THAT is a fire hazard!

Could be worse. Could have been cotton.

In my experiments, silk tended to be rather self-extinguishing whereas cotton continued to smolder. Though I wouldn't recommend using either as the primary insulation on a power cord.

If you haven't tried magnets, don't knock them. I've found they reduce noise better than anything else. Then again, you need to use the RIGHT magnet of the RIGHT polarity in the RIGHT situation (have fun experimenting).

No earthly reason for a magnetic field to have any effect on noise whatsoever. Now, the material the magnet is made from could have some effect if it has a fairly high permeability.

The most common source of noise is the safety ground which can create ground loops between equipment. Unfortunately three conductor power cords are ubiquitous in high end, even when equipment chassis would otherwise meet Class II specs and not require it.

As for band width, don't ask me...I'm not a WE engineer.

Then who was the Western Electric engineer who said the wire was optimized for mid/voice?

The wire was used for telephone voice transmission.

I can only GUESS that is was optimized since it has AMAZING resolution in this area and not so good response at the extremes.

Magnets have no effect?

Tell that to the companies that are using them and the 10's of thousands of people that purchased these products.

Tell that to recording studios that purchased magnet based AC filter and grounding devices that sell for over $100K.

Then again, you may want to mail me some Q-tips since my personal testing has shown that properly implemented magnets reduce background noise SIGNIFICANTLY and in a MUCH different way than ferrite.

You could also tell the DOZENS of customers that sold their expensive digital cables and replaced them with my magnetic digital cables that they wasted their $$$ (good luck with that one).

Then again, maybe magnets cause auditory hallucinations that make all of us THINK they sound better?

I don't claim to know the WHY...once again, I'm "standing on the shoulders of giants."

I do know what I hear, I do know what my limited testing equipment reads, and I do know what my customers tell me.

Fuzzbutt17

The wire was used for telephone voice transmission.

I can only GUESS that is was optimized since it has AMAZING resolution in this area and not so good response at the extremes.

It's wire. Fundamentally no different than any other wire of the same gauge. There's noting you're going to do to a wire to optimize it for voice. That's done in the electronics used at the ends of the wire, not the wire itself.

Magnets have no effect?

A magnetic field will have no effect, no. The material the magnet is made of may have some effect however.

Tell that to the companies that are using them and the 10's of thousands of people that purchased these products.

Ok.

All you tens of thousands of people that purchased these products, a magnetic field will have no effect on noise.

Tell that to recording studios that purchased magnet based AC filter and grounding devices that sell for over $100K.

Ok.

You recording studios that purchased magnet based AC filter and grounding devices that sell for over $100,000, a magnetic field will have no effect on noise.

You could also tell the DOZENS of customers that sold their expensive digital cables and replaced them with my magnetic digital cables that they wasted their $$$ (good luck with that one).

I never tell people they wasted their money. It's their money to spend however they wish for whatever reason they wish.

But it doesn't change the fact that a magnetic field isn't going to have any effect on noise.

If there's any effect at all, it will be due to the material the magnet is made of.

Then again, maybe magnets cause auditory hallucinations that make all of us THINK they sound better?

Well, telling people that magnets (or whatever you care to name) can make something sound better can certainly have an influence on their subjective perceptions even if whatever it is is doing nothing at all.

In fact, it's trivially easy to get people to perceive differences even when there are none.

That's why subjective experience alone is of limited value when it comes to determining what is actually going on and why one shouldn't make objective claims as to what is actually going on based on subjective experience.

I'm all for people going with whatever sounds best to them whatever the reason might be. At the end of the day, this should all be about pleasure and enjoyment.

I only have problems when people try and extrapolate beyond that and start making claims for which there is no substantial support.

By the way, exactly what magnet based AC filter and grounding device are you referring to that sells for over $100,000?

I won't tell you who sells magnet based AC filters and grounding devices out of respect for the owner of the company who is a friend of mine.

He doesn't engage in forums and he warned me about the same.

Apparently he told me that there are some people on forums that seem to know nearly everything about everything and make it their mission in life to explain away anything they don't understand whether or not they've personally tested it or not.

I don't know WHY many things work.

I do know that when I do my R&D testing I am as objective as possible and try to make IDENTICAL components with only ONE difference between them.

Once I come up with what I consider to be an improvement I then send it to my blind testers for comparison (they are "blind" not "deaf").

I then collect the sum of the responses and attempt to draw conclusions.

Some good examples of surprising conclusions of the past year had to do with wire gauges for certain applications and the use of ferrite cores on AC power.

After EXTENSIVE testing the consensus (that makes NO logical sense) was that my 8AWG power cords sounded better on EVERYTHING...even low current draw gear like DACs and phono stages.

Silly me...I originally was telling people to follow the LOGICAL and RECOMMENDED path and to use my 14AWG power cords on low current gear (CD, DAC, phono), the 10AWG on higher current draw gear (like amps), and the 8AWG only on very high current draw gear like power conditioners and high power amps.

I was VERY wrong and this was pointed out to me by my beta testers.

I also started making a digital power cord with a ferrite core. Once again, this is what is ACCEPTED as correct with good LOGICAL support.

In the end we discovered that only CERTAIN digital gear sounded better with ferrite cores and that MOST digital gear sounded better with my Cross-Helix and no ferrite.

Now I offer clip on ferrite cores to allow my customers to decide for themselves if the ferrite makes an improvement in their system.

Silly me...wrong again.

Lucky for me I have beta testers with minds and ears of their own to straighten me out when I THINK I know what I'm doing but obviously don't.

Wait a minute...isn't the basis for the scientific process...you start with a theory and then test it?

Possibly that's how it was eventually determined that the world wasn't flat, that the Earth revolves around the sun, that the moon isn't made of green cheese, that man could fly, and that Coke Classic tasted better than New Coke.

Once again, I don't claim to be a genius.

I don't claim to have any original idea...I study the "classics"...I study "new concepts"...learn new things from just about everyone.

I'm just a guy with limited technical expertise and a pretty good pair of ears.

I also have a diverse group of beta testers with diverse types of audio gear that they set up in very different rooms and use to listen to very different types of music.

I first listen to my prototypes and then I listen to my beta testers.

Seems to be working for me so far.