Air dialectric cables

Loheswaran

Well-Known Member
Dec 19, 2014
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I absolutely detest the necessary evil that are cables, however, I must concede that they do make a difference.

To cut a long story short, the best cable I have is a Nordost Tyr tonearm cable and I understand that the monofilament air dialectric is the real contributor to it's sound.

I've noticed several manufacturers claim to have an air dialectric using 'foamed teflon' - simply put what the hell is it? Is it a true air dialectric/near to as the nordost?

Whilst I love my little bit of Nordost it would be nice replicating the Tyr sound for less.
 

GaryProtein

VIP/Donor
Jul 25, 2012
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NY

audio.bill

Well-Known Member
May 27, 2013
547
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Chicago suburbs
Gary provided a good reference above. I found a more technical explanation which includes the actual dielectric constants of a vacuum, air, Teflon, and foamed Teflon. It also explains how these values affect the resultant signal velocity in a cable. Of course these are objective measurements, and how these values will affect our perception of music in an audio system is much more of a subjective nature. Hope that this helps!
 

DonH50

Member Sponsor & WBF Technical Expert
Jun 22, 2010
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Monument, CO
Standard Teflon is a solid material. Foamed looks like a sponge. The impact of any of this at audio frequencies is negligible IMO. The argument I have seen most often is that any dielectric material has the potential to store charge traps and thus increase noise. That is in fact true, and can be measured (I have), but the values are way, way down in the noise floor. I realize many claim to be able to hear much lower noise than we can measure, this is IMHO.

I suspect other parameters are making the difference, such as reduced capacitance using an air dielectric.

FWIWFM - Don
 

JackD201

WBF Founding Member
Apr 20, 2010
12,308
1,425
1,820
Manila, Philippines
Townshend used to make a really good speaker cable. Litz copper in a loose PVC tube. This cable was mostly air albeit the wire would expectedly touch the inner tube walls at points. It was one of the best budget cables (I mean really affordable) I ever had. It's a shame it was discontinued.
 

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