Graphene Coating for the DIY'er

[Mr. C]

ok so hands up who now is shaking talc over their cable???

Now have you been indulging in commercial espionage Jamie, I'll have you know I have fully certified audiophile talc shaker with made in Salisbury embossed on the front

[bumpy]

Indeed, it’s use is largely a marketing gimmick and, as we all know, the world of audio does love it’s marketing gimmicks.

Digital ready

[YNWaN]

And not forgetting ‘perfect sound forever’ .

[Barry]

As well as:

Cable risers
Vinyl de-magnetisers
Grounding boxes
Cartridge storage 'pyramids'
De-ionised safety pins and perforated strips of paper to balance the energy fields in the listening room
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[YNWaN]

Did you make up the ‘cartridge storage pyramids’? Unfortunately I know all the others are real .

[Barry]

Did you make up the ‘cartridge storage pyramids’? Unfortunately I know all the others are real .

No - it was as a Hi-Fi News Audio Accessory. A miniature pyramid having the same ratio and proportions as that of the Great Pyramid of Cheops in Giza. Made from card, when placed over any small item that item would wear less and last longer. Thus razor blades would remain sharper, small batteries last longer, and stylii last longer.

It was of course an April Fool joke by the magazine.

[YNWaN]

No doubt soon to be reintroduced by Machina Dynamica - but with added graphine.

[JohnG]

Interesting that a material that is derived from the exact same element being Carbon when produced as one of its allotropes, be it Diamond or Carbon Fibre, or Graphene, the yet to be true value of the Graphene used in the realms of HiFi are being met with Skepticism.

I am not beating the drum for Graphene, as I would a Diamond Tip on a Stylus, or the merits of Carbon Fibre as Structural Material with exceptional Mechanical Properties.
What I will say is it appears to me as a layman, to have all the qualities to obsolete the use of Diamond and Carbon Fibre and Ceramic in the areas of Mechanical Engineering.

The referred to materials are all man made today.
Diamond as we know it, when used as a Stylus Tip, are more than likely are being man made in a Laboratory.
Carbon Fibre is man made and when used as a part of a composite material, there is no challenge to its proven values when used in a environment such as Engineering and that extends into usage for HiFi Purposes.
Ceramic is the other, and if it is not used in certain applications, the application will be seen to be needing a upgrade to the use of Ceramic, i.e Bearings.

Graphene is believed to be the strongest material discovered to date.
It is being sintered to produce metallic products, i.e impregnated wire, as well as the coated wire under discussion that started this thread.
It is being grown into fibres, that will outperform Carbon Fibre, if the additional strength offered from Graphene is seen as a value.
It is also being produced in Spheres and other Shapes, so a Stylus Tip or Bearing is a believable item to be seen in the future.
I can imagine that it may one day, become the new Tip for the Stylus, giving a 4000 hour life and due to its uniqueness extract more from a groove than any predecessor material??
It may as a result, be necessary to have a Cartridge Suspension Serviced before the tip wears out ??
As far as I can see, as a material, it is on its way to becoming a Household Name, the same as Carbon Fibre, Kevlar Fibre, Boron Fibre, and dare I say it Hemp Fibre.

As said, there is a risk of the Gimmick putting it out as the next best thing, that results in it being seen as sales motivator and contributing nothing else.
What I would like to see happen is that it gets it chance to present itself as the next valued material, proves its contribution and offers a extension of choice in the realms of HiFi.

[YNWaN]

I think you misunderstand my skepticism. It is the specific application of graphene, or more the specific way the graphene is being applied, that is where my criticism lies. If one reads the link supplied earlier (not by me) it discusses the application of graphene to connectors to reduce oxidisation (interestingly, not to increase conductivity) and the preferred method is by deposition in a vacuum. The gimmick bit comes where sellers supply bottles of liquid with graphene powder suspended in it and sell it as a viable way of improving conductivity.

For what it’s worth the use of diamond, carbon fibre and ceramic have all been misrepresented by various audio companies. It’s not that these materials do not offer real performance advantages but more about the technology required to realise them.
——
One of the recent examples of this theory/technology schism has been in the development of beryllium drivers. Now beryllium domes have been around for some time but have remained rare as their manufacture required huge investment in vapour deposition equipment (as done by Yamaha and now TAD). Traditionally metal domes are pressed and this is an accurate, quick and cheap method. Unfortunately this has not been possible for beryllium as it’s not sufficiently ductile. The simple answer has been to alloy beryllium with more ductile metals to increase its ductility to the point it can be press formed. Now we come to the key point and that is that whilst the alloying with other metals makes it more ductile it also makes the finished dome significantly less stiff and no longer has the same properties as the vapour deposited, pure beryllium, driver.

[JohnG]

The Link is to the work I had read on conductivity, most of the recorded material contained,
I do not make sense of, but I liked the conclusion.
The other link posted was relating to another query put forward, and as said, did not cover conductivity.
As the thread is about the possible benefits of a improved conductivity in a wire coated in Graphene, the link should help with seeing there is a improved conductivity that can be measured.


https://www.researchgate.net/publica...ality_Graphene