Cable Building

hi Jack

yes, I left it tightly twisted bc I remember @pure5152 saying something about how geometry matters? Definitely the hardest part was shoving those wires inside the 4 pin xlr. I also couldn't use the connector cover that says "L and R" because the wires were too fat. I just soldered the wires then heat shrunk each strand then each side

 

Yeah, I was gonna ask if you hardwired them to the HDs. Glad you're enjoying the phatness!

 

Belden 9497 is good stuff

 

It's known as good and affordable, no?

 

Have some, likely ignorant, questions about cable capacitance and how to build a headphone cable from individually shielded wires.
This cable the cable in question Mogami W2943, it was sent to me by mistake, I ordered different cable but Markertec did not want it back.

I any case I build a balanced cable for HEKSE braiding four wires, and twisting together the shield and 28 AWG connector.
Then I started reading about cable capacitance and how but it is. That kind of cable, if I understand it properly, must have very high capacitance. Am I correct? And if yes what would be the proper way to do it:
1. use just a connector OR
2. Twist the cable and connector on one end and solder just a connector on the headphone sides?

 

I don't think you want high cable capacitance. You shouldn't have to worry about cable capacitance on short runs of cable as you would use for headphones. Twisting/braiding should also reduce cable capacitance.

In regards to the shield and the connector... I am not sure what you are describing. Since the headphone itself does not contain an amplifier, shielding is usually not needed for a headphone cable. If you want to keep and connect the shielding, common practice would be to NOT connect the shield to the 3.5mm jacks of the headphone, but to combine (twist together) all of the shields and attach it to the ground of the connector going to the amplifier. I guess you could float the shield in the opposite direction, but for a headphone cable, connecting or not connect the shield to either end of the cable should not matter.

 

Thank yo and you are obviously right. I used this cable just because I needed a shorter cable and I just found it lying around. Was interested if it would make any difference comparing to mogami quad that I usually use for DIY cables, or HEKSE stock cable.. It seems to be a touch warmer and than the stock but that I will only know when I use it for week and switch back.

 

Cool! I ordered some Duelund silver hook up wire for DIY project. How to solder silver? I suspect it should be hard... I purchased some lead free silver containing solder and I suspect I called some pain on my neck.

 

If you prep your wires and surfaces, the work flow is essentially the same. Silver solder itself in my experience wants slightly hotter temperatures to flow smoothly, though this depends on the particular composition of the solder (the stuff that's only a couple % AG will be basically the same). At the end of the day, lots of flux and a hot tip are the name of the game.

 

Feeling welcome here, it's nice. Wanted to say hi and do something nice.

If someone is looking to make a pair of 1m long interconnects, you should PM me before buying materials. I might have a little bit of Cardas solid core wire that I sleeved on Teflon. Hint hint. I might just drop it in the mail for you if you'd like to use it for yourself.

 

Single-ended HD800 cable using Eidolic connectors and 10m of Duelund 20awg tinned copper in cotton and mineral oil. My original plan was for Furutech connectors, but I went Eidolic after seeing that their HD800 connectors were half the price of the Furutechs. I am still curious about the Furus though as in my experience their connectors tend to sound very 3d and full bodied, which would be the perfect complement, but the Eidolic are great for now and besides, aesthetically they look great with the HD800.

I use Duelund 16awg tinned copper for my speaker wires and am really really pleased with the results...and I thought this wire would pair very well with the HD800. I was right: airy and spacious, smooth and natural, awesome detail retrieval.

 

That Duelund oil soaked cotton smells funky and comes off on your hands for a while, but I like the sound of their silver wire in my hybrid cable.

 

It's strange stuff alright, and according to all the weird concepts around building good signal cables that I've come across (some of which is very effective), it shouldn't sound that great... but it really does. I've experimented with their silver and it's great, I used it to wire up the inputs on my Bottlehead Eros 2 phono pre.

 

I got a Double Helix Symbiote SE copper litz cable for my Andromeda 2020, with a 4.4mm balanced connector on the end. Unfortunately, I discovered that the balanced output on the Shanling M8 does not pair nearly as well with the Andros as single ended, probably due to output impedance. Balanced mode made these IEMs dark...like, way too dark. Lucky for me, I also ordered an Eidolic 3.5mm connector, and wanted a 4.4mm connector to make an XLR adapter... so, I reterminated the cable myself. This was a massive pain due not only to the use of hot glue in the connector barrel, but because I bent one of the MMCX pins with my multimeter probe while checking continuity.

The results are fantastic, though! I am super happy with the sound of this combo.

 

So I finally bit the bullet and de-hardwired my HD800s, converting them to 3.5mm (details here). The "cable building" part of the conversion was putting 3.5mm connectors on the cable. Man, was it a PITA to get 4 strands of 21 AWG hookup wire in there.



Worth it in the end.

 

I have a Norne Drausk Clear 17.7 gauge thick all copper cable, I love it and would love to get it re terminated for my Utopias. I do not have the skill to do this properly so It would be stable and last. Is there anyone on the site who is really good at this I could pay to re terminate them for me?

 

Have you tried asking at Norne first? Perhaps their price won't be high?

 

Yeah, Trevor uses glue goop in the connectors that'd probably make it difficult to re-terminate without chopping up the cables. I'd also suggest reaching out to Norne.

 

I do support the goop, an extra safety measure for corrosion and mechanical stress. It's easily removable and retermination is easy enough with the proper tools.

Better yet, get some ultra short or really short adaptors from your current termination to the utopia...as long as the originals are not Sennheiser.

 

Trevor said he is not doing re terminations any more takes to much time away from cable sales.