# Quick 1/0 wire comparison: PG, Cadence, Welding cable



## Lanson (Jan 9, 2007)

My friend Mal dropped by to borrow my deadening roller, and announced he got an order for 1/0 Cadence wire in. Seemed like a good time to compare in innards and post them up.


Mal is holding the wire, his 1/0 Cadence on the left, my leftover Phoenix Gold in the middle, and my Royal Excelene welding cable.


























The Cadence is quite flexible, has a good weight to it, and appears to be a good quality wire. It is not known for certain if it is 100% copper, as the marketing says it is made with copper, does not say is it 100% copper. At any rate, I'd own it, especially for the smokin' price it is going for at Amazon right now. We're talking below $2.00 a foot if you buy in 50ft rolls or so. Also comes in a few colors.

The PG wire came from the Akit1 pack a while back. They are long gone, but the wire was merely OK as you can see. It was 100% copper from what I recall in the marketing.

The Royal Excelene 1/0 welding cable is to the right, and man it is some heavy stuff. I love it. It is HEAVY, obviously pure copper, and surprisingly flexible, moreso than I was expecting. Runs about $2.50 a foot from Wire and Supply - Electrical Wire and Electrical Supply - Washington, MI

Hope it helps guys!


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## tnbubba (Mar 1, 2008)

be careful of any wire that is not pure copper.. ran into some "silver"
crap at local shop..raptor I believe.. turns out it's freakin Aluminum.. I could tell by the weight as soon as I picked it up.

let me remind you aluminum has half the current carrying capacity than copper..it takes 1-2 ga sizes lager of aluminum wire to carry the same current as copper.

American Wire Gauge table and AWG Electrical Current Load Limits with skin depth frequencies

also measure the diameter of the wire.. most "Audio" wire is comparitively undersized to the std awg specs.!!!! yeap like probably 1 gage size!!
I don't give a crap if its 4 ga horseshit! it better by gawd be .204" od!!!


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## Lanson (Jan 9, 2007)

Was this for me, or for the general audience?



tnbubba said:


> be careful of any wire that is not pure copper.. ran into some "silver"
> crap at local shop..raptor I believe.. turns out it's freakin Aluminum.. I could tell by the weight as soon as I picked it up.
> 
> let me remind you aluminum has half the current carrying capacity than copper..it takes 1-2 ga sizes lager of aluminum wire to carry the same current as copper.
> ...


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## dogstar (Jan 31, 2007)

I love welding cable and been using it for a while now, but that Cadence stuff looks decent for the price.

TNBubba, the "silver" stuff was probably copper clad aluminum (CCA). Some people swear by it, some people swear at it. IMO, it's not worth using when you can get welding cable for less than most of the big name CCA stuff.


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## Topdown (Aug 12, 2009)

being devils advocate here... since electricity runs along the outside of the cable, not through it, why would CCA be any different than 100% pure copper (assuming the "cladding" is 100% pure copper)

I am sure someone has done testing of CCA vs 100% pure copper...? (unbias testing, not manufacturers testing)

I have used both CCA and 100% pure and never had an issue with either, though I have never replaced CCA with 100% in an existing install to get a feel for an audible difference.


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## iroller (Dec 11, 2010)

That's a very good question and one that deserves a answer.


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## Topdown (Aug 12, 2009)

The Difference Between Copper and Copper Clad Aluminum Cable - Other Reviews - Car Audio and Electronics



> *Conclusion*
> At this point you might be thinking that CCA wire is bad and shouldn't be used, but that's not the case. We've done extensive testing on CCA wire for several manufacturers and our results show that it can work very well for all but the highest current applications. Because of the additional resistance you simply can't substitute the same gauge CCA wire for the traditional gauge copper wire. Our strong recommendation would be to simply use one gauge larger size of the CCA cable than the copper cable.
> 
> That being said, if you compensate for the increased resistance in the CCA cable by going to the next larger gauge size, you'll probably end up with equal or maybe even less resistance than the smaller gauge pure copper. But along with an increase in cable size comes an increase in price. This could mean little difference in bottom line prices between comparable copper and a +1-gauge in CCA, so be aware of what you're buying. —Garry Springgay


Quick google search can answer almost any question... even my own.


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## GLN305 (Nov 2, 2007)

Topdown said:


> being devils advocate here... since electricity runs along the outside of the cable, not through it, why would CCA be any different than 100% pure copper (assuming the "cladding" is 100% pure copper)
> 
> I am sure someone has done testing of CCA vs 100% pure copper...? (unbias testing, not manufacturers testing)
> 
> I have used both CCA and 100% pure and never had an issue with either, though I have never replaced CCA with 100% in an existing install to get a feel for an audible difference.


electricity only runs on the outside of the individual strands at very high frequencies, know as the skin effect. That's why Co-axial cable for cable television is a steel wire coated in copper normally. The electrons with DC voltage do the normal handoff since it's essentially 0Hz.

that being said, CCA works great for most people because daily listening doesn't ask for alot of current relative to full tilt on an amp.


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## Lanson (Jan 9, 2007)

Agreed completely.

There is actually a specific formula for skin effect, and know that unlike what Monster Cable and other brand would like you to believe, straight 12v DC (power wire) and even audio signals like speaker and RCA carry simply don't operate at high enough frequency for skin effect to have any measurable impact on performance.


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## tnbubba (Mar 1, 2008)

skin effect only effects high frequencies..
besides the fact AL is only 60% conductive as CU.. copper cladding does not help for high current apps. skin effect is 0 for dc current!

the problem I have with AL wire is is oxidizes rapidly(hence the special "grease" you MUST use on home wire to your box) and it breaks easily. that's what the copper clad is for, simply to prevent oxidation(which by the way is a great insulator)
uh why did we quit using it in homes.. the connections oxidized at the outlets and insulated the connector. over time that additional R cause heat build up in the outlet and poof fire!!! or the wore failed if you were lucky!

again go here to see and it list the skin effect for each wire size.
American Wire Gauge table and AWG Electrical Current Load Limits with skin depth frequencies

also run current capacities on CU vs AL!!! another problem I have run into is some 
connector will not let you go past a ga size to the amp and you cant go up two gage sizes( to make up for the R loss) and get wire to fit in amp. Unless I get copper cheap
I just stick to weld cable because it is cheap and easy to find. IF you wan tot make it look cool just buy some colored shrink tube.!


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