Cardas Quad Eutectic Solder 10ft.

Cardas Quad Eutectic Solder 10ft. is great for that small project you need to solder.

George Cardas created this ultra pure, Quad Eutectic solder for the perfect joining of connector to conductor. Quad Eutectic solder contains a proprietary blend of silver, copper, tin & lead. Cardas Quad-Eutectic Solder melts and flows more smoothly than any other solder I have ever worked with. A eutectic alloy transitions from solid to liquid and back with no intermediary state making it easy to use leading to a better joint. We have found that the Cardas Quad Eutectic has a more natural sound with better harmonics and a cleaner, more extended top end than other solder we tried.

The Cardas Quad Eutectic Solder 10ft. is also available on rolls.
Cardas Quad Eutectic Solder 1 lb Roll
Cardas Quad Eutectic Solder 1/4 lb Roll

10ft.

Outside diameter: 0.032″

Material:  Sn, Pb, Cu, Ag

Melting point:  364-384º F

High quality Cardas solder made from the right combination of 4 metals.

Cardas solder is made with Ultra pure, tin / lead / silver / copper, Quad eutectic .032 solder, activated rosin core flux. Also available in 1 pound rolls.

Melting Temperature 338°F/170°C

Most solders, such as the popular 60/40, are a slurried mixture of tin and lead. In making the joint, the tin/lead mixture melts, but solidifies one metal at a time. It goes into a slurry state and one metal is liquid and the other is very small solid particles, sort of like wet cement. Next, the other metal solidifies and creates a million little connections. This type of connection is not particularly good and not permanent. When the phone company used this type of solder on their main frames, every joint had to be reheated once a year to ensure reliability. Even then, the “cold joint” was a common occurrence. Bad and noisy joints were the main cause of failure in early printed circuit boards and electronic equipment until the mid sixties to early seventies. Manufacturers learned that eutectic joints were perfectly reliable and we do mean perfectly. Starting in the mid seventies and into the early eighties most electronic equipment was being soldered with eutectic solder (63/37). The reliability of printed circuit boards went up about 1000% and solid state audio gear began to sound almost tolerable. Today, all printed circuit boards use 63/37 eutectic solder. Eutectic solder is a special mixture. The melting point of a eutectic solder is lower than any of its component parts, so there is no slurry state in these solders. They solidify as one piece and make a true solder joint, not a connection. Now, provided that the parts being soldered are made of the metal incorporated in the solder (tin plate in the example of printed circuit boards and component leads, with 63/37 tin/lead eutectic solder in the solder baths), you will have a perfect joint.

These quality joints are easy to see. Most solders are very shiny when molten and get a haze on their surface as they solidify. Eutectic joints are shiny all the way to the metal being soldered, if the metal being soldered is of the same parent group as any of the components of the solder. Many of the Cardas and other high-end connectors are plated silver with a rhodium flash. The only wires used in high end audio are copper and silver, so George Cardas developed a tin/lead/silver/copper eutectic or Quad eutectic solder. Cardas reports never having, or hearing of, a single failure in one of these joints. This solder is now used in the vast majority of all high end cables and equipment. Properly done, Quad eutectic joints provide the best sound with the lowest noise and contact resistance; all with absolute reliability.