Repurposing Computer Power Supply Wiring

[nosaj]

That would surprise me. I'd be quicker to believe the clear speaker zip cord was copper and tinned copper. Why bother with a whole different wire than copper JUST for color contrast? You can also note many if not most zip cord, clear or not, differentiates by feel. One side is smooth, the other side ribbed.

Well that explains why some older stuff the one wire shows green through the insulation.

nosaj

[Mick Bailey]

Some of the speaker cable I have has some of the strands silver plated over copper. Van Damme also does this on instrument cables, where a number of the centre conductor cores are plated.

[Helmholtz]

Your ubiquitous “clear” wire speaker has stranded copper and stranded (stainless) steel wire...

Especially for speaker wire you wouldn't want steel because the currents are high and low impedance wire is required. Steel would noticeably increase DCR (resulting in power loss and reduced speaker damping) but also inductance and skin effect (resulting in treble loss).

[olddawg]

That would surprise me. I'd be quicker to believe the clear speaker zip cord was copper and tinned copper. Why bother with a whole different wire than copper JUST for color contrast? You can also note many if not most zip cord, clear or not, differentiates by feel. One side is smooth, the other side ribbed.

Not all clear speaker wire.. but much of it from the last 30 years has one side stranded copper alloy one one side stranded stainless steel. I’ve taken it apart and used strands of it for specific uses. I also was involved in the first field test and comparisons of Monster Cable which I compared with everything from Romex to claymore mine (which is also stranded stainless) cable. There was no measurable differences at audio frequencies at sane lengths. But that didn’t stop Monster

[Bill Moore]

Aluminum house wiring got a bad rap, but it wasn't the wire that was the problem. The connections were copper/brass in the outlets and switches that expanded at a different rate that the aluminum when a load heated the wire. My father in law's house starting having problems with outlets, and lighting, and I found the fixtures were't rated for aluminum. I replaced all with type CO/AL, and for the next 20 years the mother in law lived in it, there were no problems. I also used "Penetrox" on the connections like the linemen do on all the aluminum overhead lines at connections.
(Being from a county with 2 copper mines, there was no love lost when aluminum house wiring was discontinued, but many electricians felt it was unfairly targeted due to improper installations!)

[olddawg]

We tested a bunch of it. And like I said, at sane lengths in the audio spectrum there was no measurable difference. I’m sure some “golden ears” audiophile can “hear” the difference. But we couldn’t measure any appreciable difference. I got several large rolls of stainless steel Claymore mine wire from my Seal Team buddy at the time. I gave most of it away to people to use for speaker wire. It didn’t corrode and it didn’t break. Got no complaints.

[mikepukmel]

As I remember it the problem with aluminum wire is that it is too soft, will squash under a screw and loosen easily, then arc over and burn your house down, whereas copper has a bit of springyness which helps keep it tight.

Our house power panel has detailed instructions on aluminum wiring the main service. They have the torque specified and dire warnings if you don't torque correctly. That said, I checked the two big connections coming from the main service to the distribution box, and they are crushed to s**t. I actually want to get a good electrician in to redo those connections and retorque them properly.