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In Reply to: RE: What kind of hookup wire does Magnepan use in Crossover, stranded copper or stranded aluminum? posted by pictureguy on September 21, 2012 at 11:45:53:
Yes, dissimilar metals will produce a voltage at the junction in the presence of an electrolyte like moisture in the air. So as a general rule, you don't want to mate dissimilar metals. If you must, there are tables that let you choose metals with similar potentials.
As you say, oxides (and just plain dirt) are semiconductors and corrosion will cause contact rectification that in small amounts produces a measurable increase in harmonic distortion and in high amounts is to my ears practically unlistenable.
In practice, the aluminum wires do seem to break down after many, many years -- maybe three decades? That's just a very rough inference from some of the posts I've seen. However, I'm not sure how much of that has to do with metal fatigue and how much of it has to do with deep corrosion. Aluminum ribbons will eventually fail from metal fatigue if driven hard, if driven at typical levels they'll last indefinitely. I assume that last means they're being used within the linear portion of the stress/strain curve, at that point fatigue shouldn't occur.
This is a practical problem with midrange ribbons as in the Apogees, they have higher excursion than tweeter ribbons so are prone to fatigue. The cost of servicing high in-warranty ribbon failures apparently contributed to Apogee's demise. The guys on DIY audio who have built midrange ribbons say they have to replace them periodically.
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Follow Ups
- RE: What kind of hookup wire does Magnepan use in Crossover, stranded copper or stranded aluminum? - josh358 14:02:22 09/21/12 (1)
- RE: What kind of hookup wire does Magnepan use in Crossover, stranded copper or stranded aluminum? - pictureguy 17:10:41 09/21/12 (0)
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