signal path wiring

[aragorn723]

Hi,

I read on the forum that it might be good to change the signal path wiring.  Would OCC copper be a good step up from the stock wiring?  Also, how can I tell which wires are signal path wires?  Thanks,

Dave

 

[Grainger49]

IMHO, there are other things to upgrade first.  The routing of signal path wire is more important that the conductor to me.  In the Quickie it isn't hard to go back if you want to and change the signal path wires.  I'll bet it is less than a foot of wire.  That is a nice tight signal path.

Others will disagree that the wire isn't that important.

Signal path wires come from the input RCA jacks, go to the grid of the tubes and come off the plate through the output caps to the output RCA jacks.

 

[aragorn723]

So far I have changed the 2 uf and 150 uf caps, and the phccs is installed.  The only other things i can think to upgrade are the tubes, signal wiring, and maybe the pot.  Is there something else?

Dave

 

[corndog71]

The pot is a good choice for upgrading but the wire won't make much difference.  Picking up spare tubes is also a good idea.

 

[Grainger49]

I would do tubes then the pot.

 

[mkane]

  I have 4-5 different kinds of tubes and the difference's are very subtle.

 

[Natural Sound]

For me the biggest bump in performance was replacing the 2.2uf output caps (Cout) and installing the PJCCS. A pot might help if you have left to right tracking issues, otherwise..... not so much. See if you can find some Mullard or Telefunken DL92's. They tend to be less microphonic and sound a little nicer (to me) than the US made 3S4's. I doubt that signal wire will make a difference but you could try.

One more comment if I may. Make sure you break in the output caps before you start changing things. Sometimes making "upgrades" actually make things worse. You need to have a good baseline for how things sound stock first.

Let us know how you progress.

 

[Paul Birkeland]

The wire coming from the battery holders is in the signal path, so it will be a bit unrealistic to completely rewire the amp.

Having said that, simply rewiring the wire from the jacks to the selector switch, the selector switch to the volume pot, and from the volume pot to the tube would be a decent place to start.

 

[Natural Sound]

The wire coming from the battery holders is in the signal path, so it will be a bit unrealistic to completely rewire the amp.

I often forget about the power supply being in the signal path. Big mistake on my part.

 

[timindq]

I used some left over Audioquest 20 gauge wire taken out of Type 8 speaker cable in the signal path for mine. Did it sound different? I'll never know as it went in during initial build. The wire was there so why not?

 

[aragorn723]

Sounds like changing the wire might not be worth it, though I can hear a difference in my stereo between cardas interconnects and target brand interconnects (though small), so it might be fun to mess with that last   The new pot might be really helpful though, I can't turn up the volume much without it getting very loud (the amp's input impedance is 10k, and there are 100k resistors attenuating the input in the Quickie).  Would a 36 position stepped attenuator be good for this application?  Maybe something like this?

http://glass-ware.stores.yahoo.net/a3mini.html

Dave

 

[Grainger49]

I guess we are saying that the supplied wire is better than the Target interconnect.  I have a Cardas Natural Reference between my Eros and Foreplay 2.  I could hear a difference between that and the Alpha Core that I had used.

 

[WK3K]

Tinkering under the hood of my quickie right now and came across this post — after adding a new attenuator and moving some other pieces around, so of my original wiring looks pretty ragged, so I was thinking of redoing the signal path (minus power supply) wiring anyway.

I have a bunch of mil spec silver coated copper stranded wire in either 20 or 14 gauge. Either of those a good choice? Suppose it can't be worse than the trimmings of the battery wires right?

W.

 

[Paul Joppa]

For every kind of wire there is, somebody somewhere sometime thought it sounded better than any other wire. Yeah, I've been one of those somebodys, but I'm just sayin'....

 

[Grainger49]

The best answer is try it and see.  You might like it I might hate it.  But it is your stereo.  Be happy with it. 

If it doesn't appeal, remove it for solid again.

 

[WK3K]

Thanks for the quick replies! I guess a better question probably would have been what's the advantage of solid vs stranded wire?

W

 

[Grainger49]

Solid is smaller than stranded of the same gauge.  It "forms" well and stranded can have strands can short from terminal to terminal. 

 

[fullheadofnothing]

Stranded is a pain to work with, and is really only useful if you will be subjecting the wire to mechanical stress, i.e. plugging and unplugging. If it's going to sit in one place, like inside an amp, use solid. It's easier to work with, solders better, doesn't have stray strands to poke out and screw things up.

Also, gauge is gauge, regardless of construction.

 

[Grainger49]

I think Joshua misread my first sentence.

Klein and Ideal wire strippers have different places to strip solid and stranded wire.  It is because to keep the same current capability stranded has to be a larger diameter.  That makes it harder to poke into tube pins and terminals.

 

[fullheadofnothing]

After some research, I see Grainger is right on this one. Stranded is calculated as equivalent cross section.