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RE:suggestable!

Posted by unclestu (D) on August 8, 2011 at 16:34:51

In Reply to: Perhaps, we are very suggestable! posted by jedrider on August 8, 2011 at 15:36:16:

The easiest explanation in the world is to write a effect off as being psychosomatic.

I haven't tried the tweak, so some of what I write is pure speculation and to be taken with more than a grain of salt....

Electrical contacts all suffer from imperfect matings of the contact surfaces. A microscopically rough mating surface causes arcing between the mismatched sections and small gaps. This is why Cardas uses rhodium plating , preferring that metal over gold and silver because he claims that the precious metals are too soft and the friction upon inserting the contact surfaces causes the metal to gall and actually lift the mating surfaces apart. Over time the mechanical pressure will eventually flatten out the tiny balls of material and may be a partial explanation of the effects of "break in". Rhodium, on the other hand, is very hard and develops an extremely smooth surface, so that the contact patch is actually greater since the metal does not gall, reducing resistance by the greater size of the contact patch ( obviously this works only if the two surfaces are rhodium or a similarly hard smooth metal).

The so called contact enhancers work on the same principle, supposedly filling in the small gaps between mating surfaces,, thus enhancing the current flow.

At one point, some audio magazine writer claimed that this contact discontinuity created a "diode effect" where the arcing creates a slight rectifying effect on an AC current ( signal, too) passing through a mechanical contact. I can find no trace of this effect in any electrical engineering text, but I remember working with an EE student on such an effect for his thesis. I never got a copy of his thesis but he did achieve some measurable distortion caused by contact resistances, IIRC.

Quite obviously wrapping teflon tape around the contacts is not really going to enhance any contact patch (I prefer polishing my contact patches, particularly AC ones), but perhaps the teflon adds insulation to the near contact patches and thus reduces the effects of arcing. Again, quite obviously, where there is metal to metal contact the teflon will be squeezed out and electrical contact will resume. This maybe a rationale for the sound change heard, but one would have to carefully examine the teflon wrap after use.

Stu

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