[R-390] Oxygen Free Wire

[David Hallam]

I have been meaning to reply to Ken Kaplan's "tongue in cheek" request on
how to identify oxygen free wire and his comments about the scams in the
audio industry for "better sound".

I am by training a metallurgical engineer and by experience am engineer
involved in the manufacture of electrical wire and cable.  I have 35+ years
experience in the field and currently have my own consulting business for
manufacturing processes in the area of superconducting wire.

Oxygen free copper has a place in the business.  That place is where there
is a need for copper to be used in a high temperature-reducing atmosphere
such as hydrogen brazing of components.  For that read, the manufacturing of
vacuum tubes, vacuum capacitors, light bulbs and the like.  Under those
circumstances, oxygen in the copper will react with hydrogen and form water.
At the elevated temperatures involved, the water formed is in the vapor
phase and creates tremendous internal pressure that fractures the gain
boundaries rendering the wire or copper form brittle and useless.

In ordinary transmission of energy, oxygen does nothing detrimental to the
process, unless, of course, it is present in excessive amounts.  If it were,
you would not be able to make wire out of it.  The oxygen present in
ordinary copper wire, where the copper is referred to as electrolytic tough
pitch, is on the order of 250 ppm.  Believe me, the electrons traveling
through wire carrying the sound from your amplifier to your speakers don't
give a damn whether there is 250 ppm or 0 ppm of oxygen in the wire.  The
end result is the same.

The marketing of oxygen free copper speaker wire or other forms of wire in
the amplifier is a ploy designed to separate you from excessive amounts of
your money, all pseudo scientific claims not withstanding.  THERE AIN'T NO
BASIS FOR IT.

You all will have to forgive my rant, but this is one of my pet peeves.