http://www.vandenhul.com/userfiles/docs/Carbon_and_Hybrid_Technology.pdf
Q: What generates the typical mechanical defects in a metal conductor like e.g. a copper cable?
A: During the production of the conductor there is a lot of mechanical processing like stretching and bending.
Any bending causes minute surface cracks to appear at the outer side- and displacements on the inner side of the
curvature. Each break or displacement exposes metal crystal boundaries to reaction with gases from the air (e.g.
Oxygen). So there is an outer layer full with impurities (like metal-oxides), non-continuous structures and dislocations.
Afterwards it is a miracle that there is still conductivity left.
Q: What are the sonic effects of these defects?
A: As soon as a conductor is not a uniform material, each zone or layer has its own electrical influence on the sound.
Especially at lower signal levels, there is a growing influence (the aging effect) on the transmission of the electrical signals
(music).
The result is that especially the spatial information drops out and gets replaced by harshness.
Q: What causes this so called harshness?
A: The harshness is the result of the abrupt raise in the electrical impedance caused by the growing lack of conductivity at
lower signal levels. Very low level sinewaves (tones in the audio signal) e.g. will experience zero crossing nonlinearities
and due to this will be supplemented with a rich quantity of (unnatural) harmonics. The zero crossing parts of the
sinewave perish since there the signal does not have enough energy to take the (polluted) crystal barriers.
Q: Is there any difference between e.g. copper and silver conductors besides their color and price?
A: In principle the answer is NO. But despite this NO there are some differences in the processing. Silver costs a lot more
than copper, so the general production attitude is more careful and the production speed is lower: less meters per second,
resulting in a reduced mechanical and chemical aging. Sonically this works towards a better signal quality transmitted
along the product. The influence of air and bending on the product after its manufacture is about the same as copper, so
the aging in a listening room is not different.
Only when the owner is very careful with the product (no bending and a clean atmosphere) the cable will sonically live
longer.
The crystal structure of e.g. copper and silver is equal and their number of free electrons per volume are about the same.
So their typical resistance is equivalent, should this property be important to you.