will cheap solder compromise sound quality

Glaw343

Hi everyone, I have a shitload of patch cables to be wiring up and I need some decent solder, I've always used 60/40 rosin core but fairly cheapo stuff from amazon (tigree) I've just run out so need to get some more, can you recommend any, will the cheap stuff compromise sound quality? cheers

Sporky

The solder is there to hold the joint together; if you have a good mechanical joint between the wire and solder tags then the solder (assuming the joint is made well) won't affect the sound quality.

Glaw343

cheers for the reply, so just use any stuff then?

Sporky

Well, not the plumbing stuff.

I switched to the ultra-skinny lead free stuff a decade or longer ago and that works fine. Leaded is easier but naff-all difference really.

DartmoorHedgehog

If you take all the lead out of the solder won't it sound tinny?

ICBM

I use a good quality high-silver-content lead-free now - the Maplin stuff was good, if not cheap, but sadly not available now... I've switched some from RS which has a slightly lower silver content. After initially hating lead-free before I found the silver stuff, I'm now quite happy to use it.

It also has the advantage that *if* there is any significant thickness of solder between the two parts, silver is a much better conductor than tin - or lead, for that matter.

But as Sporky says, to make a joint properly you want as close to tight mechanical contact between the metal parts as possible. The solder is there to bond it together and to seal it against moisture and oxygen as much as it is to make the electrical connection.

Sporky

Silver's pretty much the best conductor, no? 

ICBM

Sporky said:

Silver's pretty much the best conductor, no? 

Yes. I'm not sure how much difference it makes at the 3-4% level, but it wouldn't surprise me if it was important, since tin is a fairly poor conductor. I found this table - and I was surprised to find lead is actually a worse conductor than tin.

https://qph.fs.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-fbde9d71bf0df6b92fe3f771de5669d7

And even more surprised by how poor mercury is, given that it's used to wet switch contacts! But presumably is still better than air .

JayGee

I reckon this is kind of a secondary effect thing - if you’ve got a nice, firm, tidy, shiny joint it doesn’t matter what you use, but some things will make it considerably easier to get good joints than others.

I’m rubbish at soldering (probably because I don’t do all that much of it) and need all the help I can get so I’ll be very sad when my diminishing stock of old school high lead content stuff finally runs out...

ICBM

JayGee said:

I’m rubbish at soldering (probably because I don’t do all that much of it) and need all the help I can get so I’ll be very sad when my diminishing stock of old school high lead content stuff finally runs out...

You can actually still buy it - it’s legal for sale for repair purposes, just not in new equipment.

But also try the high (3% or above) silver content lead-free, you may be surprised how good it is - although expensive.

Henrytwang

I like to use the old lead based multi core solder, it seems to flow better. I have built up quite a stock of it over the years from car boot sales etc.