Answer: when a conductor is carrying a steady DC current,it is uniformly distributed over the whole cross section of the conductor. however, an alternating current fowing through the conductor does not distribute uniformly . Rather it has a tendency to concentrate near the surface of the conductor. This is known as skin eect There is a considerable amount of discussion (not to say argument!) amongst those interested in audio and Hi-Fi about the possible effects of cables upon sound quality. This tends to lead to some people adopting almost theological ie!points that differ fundamentally from the ie!s held by others. "ne of the technical factors !hich is sometimes claimed to affect sound quality is !hat is usually called #$in effect. %n most electronics te&tboo$s' the properties of cables and !ires are considered as a form of transmission line. The te&t may mention briefly the s$in effect !ithout e&ploring this in detail. (ore often' ho!eer' the only parameters that tend to be considered are the capacitance per length' inductance per length' and their relationship !ith the signals nominal propagation elocity and the characteristic impedance of the system. The fact that normal materials hae a finite conductance (or resistance) is not usually considered beyond its effect upon the d.c. (and lo! frequency) resistance of the cables and the resulting implied signal po!er losses. %n reality' !hen !e transmit alternating signals along conductie lines !e may e&perience effects due to !hat is generally called s$in effects. This sub)ect is !idely misunderstood' and hence people occasionally tend to ino$e this frequency dependent behaiour as the implied basis for all $inds of claims regarding the sounds of different types of cables. The purpose of this analysis is to thro! some light into this area and help proide some understanding of the effects of using conductors of finite conductiity. %n engineering te&tboo$s' the consequences of finite conductiity and !ire si*e are treated in terms of an %nternal %mpedance. This term is probably more useful that s$in effect as it acts as a reminder that the effects arise due to the fields internal to the conductor. The internal impedance per unit length of a !ire is considered in +amo et al. From this !as may dra! the follo!ing results as a starting point. The d.c. (i.e. ery lo! frequency) impedance of a !ire !hich has a circular cross- section and is uniform may be said to consist of a resistance per unit length of !here is the bul$ conductiity alue appropriate for the material used to manufacture the !ire' and is the radius of the !ire. The resistance is in "hms,metre if !e are using #.%. units (!hich !ill be assumed from no! on). The !ire !ill also e&hibit an effectie inductance per unit length at ery lo! frequency due to its internal fields. -t ery lo! frequencies this has the alue !here is the permeability of the material. %n general !e can assume that this equals the alue for free space The detailed analysis in +amo leads to the follo!ing e&pressions !hich can be used to determine the releant !ire resistance and inductance per unit length for a conductie !ire of circular cross section at frequencies aboe d.c. !here and is the s$in depth alue !hich may be calculated ia !here is the signal frequency (as opposed to the signals angular frequency). %n fact' using the aboe e&pressions !e can sho! that and specifying this factor in terms of and may be more conenient !hen performing calculations. .o!' ' etc are /essel functions. 0e can find numerical e&pressions for ealuating these in a te&t li$e -bramo!it* and #tegun. 1sing these !e can compute alues. For the sa$e of clarity is is useful to plot alues normalised in terms of . #ome results of doing this are illustrated in figure 2. These are plotted ersus so that the releant nominal s$in thic$ness is also normalised in terms of the !ire radius. The solid lines plotted sho! the releant alues calculated from the aboe e&pressions. 1nfortunately' the e&pressions proided by - 3 # only coer the range for !hich roughly corresponds to . -boe this alue the /essel functions become hard to ealuate and their combination tends to lead to a situation !here a set of large alues cancel to gie a moderate result. Hence for computational simplicity !e can use a simpler appro&imation for the situations !here is large. Here this may be defined as !here this ratio has a alue greater than 4. The standard h.f. appro&imation is that both and !ill be essentially equal to . Ho!eer by inspecting the results sho!n in figure 2 !e can see that it is possible to do better than this and a more reliable appro&imation !ould be This appro&imations are sho! in figure 2 by the bro$en lines. The appro&imation for is sho!n by a short-dashed red line' and that for by a longer-dashed green line. %t can be seen that these appro&imations are li$ely to be reasonably accurate in the region . 2. Types of Wire %n general' electronic signals are coneyed using a pair of !ires. These are used to form a closed loop (path) bet!een the signal source and the load around !hich charge may flo!. /roadly spea$ing !e can then define a cable to consist of a pair of !ires. The most common forms of cable used in audio are T!in Feeder and 5o-a&. The basic properties of these are discussed else!here. 6ach of the !ires may be a single' solid' length of conductor. (ore usually' ho!eer' each !ire !ill consist of a bundle of conducting strands. (ultistrand !ires hae properties !hich may differ from that of a single' solid !ire of similar cross-section. 0e can therefore treat !ires as falling into three general categories as outlined belo!. #olid core (i.e. )ust one strand of conductor per !ire) #tranded !ire (a bundle of thin strands of conductors) 7it* !ire (as stranded but !ith insulation bet!een the indiidual strands) For solid-core !ires the aboe analysis can be used immediately to compute the internal impedance and deduce the effects it may hae in a gien situation. For the stranded and 7it* !ires !e need to ta$e the stranding and the effect of inter-strand contacts or insulation into account. 7it* !ires consist of a bundle of ery thin' indiidually insulated conductors. The insulation ensures that the current flo!s in all of the !ires in the bundle as the charge cannot migrate to!ards the surface of the bundle. The entire cross section of conductor bundle is therefore used by the charge transport. 8roided that the indiidual strands are thin enough' the strands all hae indiidual radii that are small compared to the s$in depth at audio frequencies. Hence the oerall properties of the 7it* bundle tends to be similar to that of a single !ire of the same diameter of the bundle but !here s$in effect is apparently absent. %n practice' most of the multi-strand !ires used for audio purposes hae no insulation on the indiidual strands. This means they do not behae li$e a 7it* !ire. %n stranded !ires !ithout insulation bet!een the indiidual strands charge may cross from strand to strand. Hence current !ill tend to preferentially flo! near the s$in of the bundle of !ires' )ust as it does !ith a single solid conductor of similar oerall diameter. Hence !hen the strands are thin but in electrical contact !ith their neighbours !e can e&pect the effect of internal impedance to be similar to that of a solid !ire of a diameter similar to the bundle of strands. There is' ho!eer' one factor !e should ta$e into account. This arises !hen the strands do not fill the bundle and their are air gaps. This is illustrated in figure 9. This sho!s a close-pac$ed array of strands' each of radius . #ince the strands all hae a circular cross-section !e find that een if they are tightly pac$ed into a he&agonal array there !ill be spaces in bet!een the places !here they touch. Hence a bundle of small pac$ed strands that are in electrical contact can be regarded as similar to a solid but !hich has some air inclusions !hich mean that oerall !ire cross section is only partly filled !ith conductor. :ien a alue for the fill factor' ' (the fraction of the cross section !hich is filled !ith conductor) !e can treat the !ire as being equialent to a solid conductor of the same !ire diameter' ' but haing an effectie conductiity of . Thus the main electronic effect of using a bundle of strands is to dilute the effectie conductiity and lo!er its apparent alue. To estimate the alue of the fill factor !e can note that the array has a symmetry similar to a pac$ed array of equilateral triangles !hose sides all hae a length of . Ta$ing one of these elemental triangles !e can see that it contains three ;< degree sectors of conductor. Hence the cross sectional area of conductor in each triangle is equal to . Ho!eer the area of each triangle !ill be . Hence the fill factor !ill be appro&imately equal to +eal strands !ill tend to deform slightly !hen compressed and may not hae perfectly smooth' circular cross sections. They may also not be perfectly pac$ed. Hence !e can e&pect the actual alue of the fill factor to ary accordingly in practice. %n 7it* bundles the insulation layers on the strands !ill also moe the conductors apart by a small amount' thus reducing the fill factor alue. 1sually' !e can e&pect this effect to be small as the layer of insulation is li$ely to be ery thin. %n most cases !e can therefore tend to assume that the fill factor is reasonably close to unity so this is a reasonable assumption for general analysis. That said' in some specific cases !e can ta$e stranding into account by modifying the effectie conductiity by an appropriate fill factor alue. Content and pages maintained by: Jim Lesurf (jcgl@st-and.ac.uk) using Tec!riter "ro and #T$L%dit on a &trong'($ po)ered (*&C+& macine. ,ni-ersity of &t. 'ndre)s. &t 'ndre)s. /ife 0123 4&&. &cotland.