Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site rabbit.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!alice!rabbit!ark
From: ark@rabbit.UUCP (Andrew Koenig)
Newsgroups: net.audio
Subject: Litz wire might make a difference
Message-ID: <2595@rabbit.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 12-Mar-84 13:58:00 EST
Article-I.D.: rabbit.2595
Posted: Mon Mar 12 13:58:00 1984
Date-Received: Tue, 13-Mar-84 08:38:30 EST
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill
Lines: 14

I had thought that audio frequencies were way too low for the
skin effect to make any measurable difference in speaker wire.
I knew that skin effect was important at radio frequencies, but
that at lower frequencies it would be insignifant.

Perhaps not.  I have just learned for the first time what the
numbers actually are.  Apparently, the skin depth is 0.001 inch
at 1 megaherz, and goes as 1/sqrt(frequency).  Thus at 20 kHz
the skin depth is only 0.007 inches, which is pretty close to the
diameter of a strand in ordinary stranded wire.

It is therefore conceivable that insulating the individual strands
would make a measurable difference in the behavior of speaker wire
at 20 kHz and lower frequencies.