The skin effect is talking about paralleling several smaller wires to form a large conductor. It was discovered by Tesla I agree with the skin effect I think it is better to have several smaller conductors form a larger one infect its impossible to find solid conductors that are 2ga in use as speaker wire anywhere So I would say that it is a fundamental of conductor theory. And widely accepted that as the frequency changes so does the flow of electrons across a conductor change its location. This was part of the fundamental theory for the magic hi pass low pass speaker cable but, what they failed to realize is part of the skin effect states that a frequency of say 60hz will move to the outside of the conductor by say as much as 50% to 60% but how does the low frequency know what wire to piggyback onto? This is the magic part of the magic cable that can not be explained by anyone to my satisfaction
Current bunching is a newly discovered effect of the flow of current and it is what it says it is current that bunches up in a conductor there have been studies using plasma as a conductor an a luminance technique was employed to see the phenomenon it exists. But how have the cable crackpots been able to fix it there are theories that changing the geometry of a conductor will decrease current bunching and the skin effect only one problem with this theory NO ONE HAS BEEN ABLE TO SHOW IT IN REAL LIFE.
I guess if they say they have done it we should just take them at there word right? I think NOT. also they now claim (these same cable voodoo guys) that impedance and capacitance no longer mater in a conductor because they have solved all the problems with there geometry Have they changed the laws of physics while there were at it that says in every conductor this is an opposition to the flow of electrons referred to as resistance or impedance? I guess its like jack and his magic beans No one has seen them but yet some of us still believe lol not me.
If you can not measure it and graph it and put in on paper then it’s a theory and theories are just that. Some people use them to create the illusion of a great product I say show me the proof if you can't show me the proof how do you know it works in the first place??
Chris Church
what are your thoughts on current bunching and the skin effect?
Chris, skin effect doesn't have anything to do with paralleling smaller wires to form a large conductor, except that some people use that method to combat the effects of the skin effect. Skin effect is, in laymen's terms, the tendency for AC current to concentrate itself near the surface of a conductor that carries it. The higher the frequency, the closer to the surface of the conductor that the AC current runs. Some people use multistrand cable composed of individually insulated wires to form a larger conductor that is less susceptible to the skin effect. The magnitude of the effect and its effect on the phase response of the cable are mathematically tedious to compute and these effects tend to be quite small, but predictable, at audio frequencies. For one of the best descriptions that I've seen of skin effect at audio frequencies and the related effects of conductor diameter and spacing on audio frequency electrical signals, go to this link:
http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/~www_pa/Scots_Guide/audio/skineffect/page1.htmlPlease note that this is a 5 page article, so be sure to look through all 5 pages. Also pay attention to the geatly expanded magnitude scales shown. For reference, an attenuation of .01 dB amounts to reduction in signal amplitude to 99.77% of the original amplitude. Also notice how extremely small of a difference there is between silver and copper in terms of their conductance per meter. Then start to realize that one skin depth at 10 kHz is a little over 1/2 cm, but people silver plate copper cable only to a depth of perhaps a couple thousandths of an inch (about 1/20th of a mm), so unless you are using really thin wires, the silver plating has very little effect on frequency dependent attenuation. It's probably arguable that you could notice a slight benefit by using 100% silver cable, but the difference of using silver plated copper cable vs. plain copper cable is going to be imperceptible for any reasonable length of cable. You could tell the difference if you ran a mile of cable, but that's not something that people are likely to do. You'll get more loss in a 10 foot run due to body oils that you inadvertently leave on the cable terminations than you'll get from not using plated cable.
Also on this same site is a good introductory discussion of transmission line theory and other relevant topics if you are trying to understand the validity of the various claims made by cable makers. For those other topics, you'll want to go here:
http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/~www_pa/Scots_Guide/audio/Analog.html