Seems to me that buying graphite refills would be much easier then buying pencils and removing the wood. Drafting pencil refills are about the same diameter as regular pencil graphite possibly not as long tho.

I don’t know about solid carbon rods, but I do know that standard carbon composition resistors (which I would imagine would be very similar in construction) are measurably noisier than thin- or metal-film resistors. Vishay’s bulk metal foil devices are non inductive as well.

I can appreciate the sense of satisfaction to be had by building your own components, but don’t pretend they are better than what can be had commercially.

For the best natural undisturbed sound quality you need to use japanese char coal. You can buy them for $10 or so for a small stick to put into water to purify it and rectify the water crystals. A little expensive but the sound is worth every penny!

I think this is BS. Electronics superstition. Save your creative energies for something really helpful, not kludging together absurd resistors.

@Monica: I think not. The structure of graphite has all sorts of amazing properties, which is why nanotechnology is so infatuated with graphite (ie. graphene sheets, nanotubes, etc). Isn’t ‘kludging’ what *real* design is (and always has been) all about?

The issue of ‘sound quality’ is most surely debatable, however unless you yourself have spent long hours listening to the minute differences in sound coming from a ‘good’ stereo system (before and after ‘burn in’ etc.. ), you have no basis on which to judge.

Give it a shot. You’d be amazed at what little difference it can make..

Oh whoopee, audiophile snake oil.

@Uri Geller & @Ivan – I concur, but I am still working on a way to remove that oxygen… I am thinking of running the whole system in a vacuum. I should get the most detailed silence ever!
@medix – ever heard of the emperors new clothes?

The original artical written by Troel is actually a very good write up. He doesn’t make any absurd claims about the sonic performance of the resistors he is making, but details the work nicely including some sensible suggestions and analysis on quality. Excellent work.

Eh.. whatever.

Perhaps that was not worded properly.. I could care less if this makes a difference in performance (along the same lines as oxygen-free copper and all the other BS)

Could be interesting to try though, especially if a real noise analysis was done for comparison (ie. thermal and shot noise)..

For example: http://www.aikenamps.com/ResistorNoise.htm

@medix
stereo system “burn-in”? what?

@xmd: I first learned about it in a class called “Off the shelf design with integrated electronic components” taught by a 60′s era (deaf) prof who spent his career working in / designing components for the power industry. I was familiar with PN junction noise, and have seen many white noise generators based on this phenomenon, but resistor shot noise was a new one.

@octel: cp.literature.agilent.com/litweb/pdf/5989-5560EN.pdf

“Accelerated life tests that subject
units to higher-than-usual levels of
stress such as voltage, temperature,
humidity, pressure, and loading are
used to speed up the deterioration of
materials or electronics components.”

i.e. It ain’t perfect off the shelf. The above link is for electronic component failure testing, but the same can be said for changes in device properties from extended use / over stress.

these will never beat my amplifier built on a lm555 and a resistor based on the contact between an old flashlight’s on “switch” with reverse inductance capacitors
it even has monster cables!(i made sure to cut them in half and solder directly to the braid so as to keep high quality connections)

hm, i found a old ass record player, wonder if the tubes are any good… it was sitting in a leaky basement under a metal chest that was rusting away
think i should try to restore it or just make it into a amp?

@Almost_There

Glass can also be made to go into thermal runaway by heating the inch or so between mains connections (limited by a lamp) to dull red heat with a bunsen burner. Apply heat until the lamp starts to light, then it should go into thermal runaway, melt the glass, and break the circuit.

Small carbon rods can be used to create arcs (and UV not good for eyes or skin), and current-oriented as a spot welder for very light jobs.

Worth repeating;
@cmcdugan
“I can appreciate the sense of satisfaction to be had by building your own components, but don’t pretend they are better than what can be had commercially.”

@sean.

Amen.

Where is this *non-linearity* that changes the sound? Show me.

Over 50 years in electronics, a lot of it working on all manner of audio gear, I have yet to encounter distortion originating in a resistor. Noise certainly, but never distortion.

@medix

My problem with subjective evaluations is that as a soundie I know too well how unreliable ears and memory can be. In some repects such as pitch the sensitivity can be exquisit, but in others such as loudness it is worse than useless. If the same programme sounds different, was it distorted before, or is it distorted now?

I am not interested in making this to test it, but what are the inductive characteristics of the coil of copper wire wrapped around each end of this resistor?

I understand that it will be a very poor inductor because the wire is not coated and there is a lot of conductivity between the coils where they touch the graphite and each other. Still, the resistors you would be comparing these to would be very low inductance. Is this negligible inductance more or less than the negligible inductance of a normal resistor? My gut says more, but not enough to matter.

All that said, I still want to make some of these, but not because I am an audiophile.

Come on, you people are such complainers. It’s a resistor. Made out a pencil. Does that not scream “hack”?

@Roly

Carbon comp resistor *are* noted for distorting signals:

http://www.geofex.com/Article_Folders/carbon_comp/carboncomp.htm

According to this, amongst other sources, there is “measureable second harmonic distortion.”

Furthermore, real resistors are nonlinear devices. It can be shown that inductive and capacitive effects of real world resistors are detectable in audio bandwidth signals.

This has been around for ages. One cool application of pencil lead is wiring it to your car battery. Offers good light for about 15 minutes – enough to carry an emergency repair.

New money-making idea: Paint a stick with black paint and sel it to audiophiles as a new, high resistance component which improves the audio when connected between speaker leads.

What’s the difference between an audiophile and god?
God doesn’t think he’s an audiophile.