On Tue, 2 Sep 2008 12:31:24 +1000, "Phil Allison"
wrote:


"John Larkin"
"Phil Allison"

Somewhat along these lines John?

http://www.sumikoaudio.net/ocos/idx_products.htm


No. They show a thin inner conductor with thick insulation.

** Try reading the text.

There is no "insulation"used.

The black layer is a carbon filled plastic = a conductor.


If it conducts, it barely conducts. Nearly all the current will flow
through the copper. So it may as well be an insulator.


** Just guesswork - not fact.

The best carbon-filled plastics have volume electrical resistance in
the ballpark of a million times higher than copper. The ESD-type
carbon-filled plastics, the cheaper stuff, is yet thousands or
millions of times worse, typically 1e15 times the resistance of
copper. Look it up. Even silver filled plastics don't conduct very
well, heat or electricity, because the grains don't contact well.

Think about it: in this silly speaker cable, if the carbon conducts
anywhere near as well as copper, it will short the cable. If it
doesn't, it's acting as an insulator as far as the magnetics go.



The conductivity of that graphite layer likely increases the capacitance per
meter plus add a continuous loss per metre.

It may well do just what the graph shows.



"In keeping with the fundamentals of HF-technology the impedance of
any conductor will rise dramatically in the bass region..."

is standard audio pseudo-scientific nonsense.


** Fraid it is perfectly correct.

The characteristic impedance of short transmission lines rises at low
frequencies - as shown in the graphs.

Those graphs are absurd. Measure the *actual impedance* of few feet of
zip cord at, say, 60 Hz. Do you really think it goes to hundreds of
ohms? How could a toaster work if its line cord has hundreds of ohms
of impedance?

John