Cable Building

Discussion in 'DIY' started by Skyline, Sep 30, 2015.

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  1. toddrhodes

    toddrhodes Friend

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    Read the link, that first main reply is amazing. So much to learn.
     
  2. toddrhodes

    toddrhodes Friend

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    Was able to get those WBTs desoldered. Took almost 2 hours to do 8 of them. The design of that terminal makes getting the shield off pretty tricky depending on how it was built to begin with.

    Does anyone know of a source for pre-printed +/- red/black tags like for speaker wire? I wouldn't have thought this would be so tough to find.
     
  3. Zhanming057

    Zhanming057 Friend

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    I use red-black-blue or two sets of heatshrink, with a longer piece for each channel and shorters ones for polarity.
     
  4. toddrhodes

    toddrhodes Friend

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    Thanks! Surprised I can't find any and I'm not shelling out for 100 pieces of custom printed ones when I only need two of each :)
     
  5. toddrhodes

    toddrhodes Friend

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    Mogami 3104 twisted together for single-wiring per channel. Furutech spades, and set-screw bananas that don't otherwise come apart, and work great with the WBT lugs on my amp. I've had these for awhile but tonight decided to do them correctly and I'm happy with how they turned out. The main goal here was to shorten what I had, as they were almost 10' long and I only needed 5' with my new layout.


    What I started with
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    And done:
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    One old and one new next to each other
    [​IMG]
    Installed
    [​IMG]

    The RCAs are Mogami 2549 that I terminated with WBT 0144s, then added a little dressing to. I should have done the dressing before I soldered one of the two ends, but I was excited to use my new soldering station, lol. I still like how they turned out.

    Next up is to dress the other RCA I made (same recipe as above), then I'm moving into power cables. First one will just be simple, and will rid me of that garden hose going into the amp. Then I'm trying Steve Reeve's double helix design. We'll see.
     
  6. uncola

    uncola Friend

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    Nice work, I recently did almost exactly what you did but with canare 4s11 4 conductor cable.. I see you have an odyssey amp. I'm also finding it's more important to have flexible cords the right length and gauge and with good shielding or anti emi geometry is more important than conductor purity and pure copper terminations
     
  7. toddrhodes

    toddrhodes Friend

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    The Mogami I'm using has cotton rope (it's actually pretty darn thick, too) running through it but when it comes to cable properties and such, I just know I really like the sound I get from Mogami. Canare is really, really good stuff though.

    I am beyond happy with my Odyssey gear. I have a Stratos Extreme with a few upgrades and it is fed by a Candela preamp with Radiotechnique 12AU7s that are just magical for the music I listen to. The Kismet monos like you have are the only other amplification I would consider going to from the Stratos. But in my small room, I'm barely stressing the Stratos and I want for nothing in terms of imaging or dynamics, so I feel like that will be the route I go if/when the Stratos has played its last note, but not before then.

    And reducing the length of the cable, while I can't definitively say it's improved anything, the rigs sounds even a touch more dynamic and spacious this evening, so that's something.
     
  8. Lou Casadonte

    Lou Casadonte Friend

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    Finally took the plunge and made 2 30ft speaker wires. I used Audioquest Rocket 11 wire, wire pants and some tech flex. For now I used the RB 300 Banana Plugs as well. Happy with how things have turned out and sound.
    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]
     
  9. bobboxbody

    bobboxbody Friend

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    Finally built a cable for my Auteurs. I used Mogami W2534 and left it as is until the split, then twisted inside of #550 paracord. Amphenol mini 4 pin XLRs and a giant Furutech 1/4" for connectors. Sounds nicer than the stock cable? I dunno, but it's pretty and the exact length I wanted.
    [​IMG]
     
  10. winterfog

    winterfog Facebook Friend

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    Made my first cable, for my pre-fazor LCD-2.2. This was the first time I had ever soldered anything, and I was able to get nice shiny joints, so I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. I used the transparent-sheathed 22-AWG conductors from Mogami 2549, a Viablue TRS jack and splitter, and Amphenol mini-XLR jacks which were a very tight fit. Sounds great.
    [​IMG]
    It was 5.5 feet long before braiding/twisting, which is just long enough to be perfect for listening at my computer desk, but also just short enough so that it doesn't quite touch the floor when stored at the desk. Not touching the floor is a big plus, since it means our Roomba won't eat the cable and pull the headphone off its stand.

    The main downside to this design is microphonic noise in the twisted sections after the split. There's a little play between the two wires in each twisted pair, so they can rattle against each other. The better thing to do would have been to cover the sections after the split entirely with shrink tubing to secure them, even if the result wouldn't look as nice.
     
  11. bobboxbody

    bobboxbody Friend

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    It turns out I should not have used the metallic paracord. Despite the neat looks, it's much louder in terms of microphonics. Whoops.
     
  12. PirateKingAtomsk

    PirateKingAtomsk New

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    This looks like exactly what I'm aiming to do for myself, and I also didn't know about these hirose connectors but they're a sleek looking alternative to 4pin mini xlr, and an easily available alternative to trrrs

    I read through your responses and I didn't see a few things I'm curious about.
    These seem really bendable, are they each two canare star quad cables?
    Did you remove the outer plastic sheathe but keep the shielding weave?
    What is the filler rubber you have inside the Eidolic XLR?

    Sorry for the question spam
    Cheers
     
  13. Jalsar

    Jalsar Facebook Friend

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    I Used Sommer Cable SC-Onyx 2025 MKII with braid sleeving and heat shrink wrap.

    I made these for my vintage setup (its from my middle to high school setup).
    [​IMG]
    I found these rca plugs that looked like the ones from radio shack’s premium cables in the 90’s. I like how they look with my mid 90’s gear.

    Started making these for my main listening rig.
    [​IMG]
    They are super flexable and dont seem to pick up any interfence from power cables or lamp cables. The plugs are a little tight but I stretch them out a little before use them.
    Hopefully these don’t look to bad.

    Edited: Took me a little bit to get the pictures to actually work.
     
    Last edited: Feb 8, 2019
  14. bobboxbody

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    [​IMG]

    Just built this 1/4" extender for my ZMFs. Neutrik female locking 1/4" to Amphenol jumbo 1/4" with Mogami W2534.
    My new favorite activity is laying in bed listening to Bach: The Cello Suites - Recomposed by Peter Gregson on my Auteurs. Many thanks to @Syzygy and @David De Lucena for the recommendation on "the what are you listening to" thread.
    Edit: Never thought I would have so much fun making cables, thanks to this thread as well.
     
  15. fraggler

    fraggler A Happy & Busy Life

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    Careful, you might become a parts hoarder like me. I have many hundreds of dollars worth of wires and misc connectors I have collected over the years because they were a good deal or looked cool. I sometimes make a cable I don't need because I wanted to try something new.
     
  16. LetMeBeFrank

    LetMeBeFrank Won't tell anyone my name is actually Francis

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    Any recommendations for some good quality / good looking banana plugs at a reasonable price?
     
  17. dBel84

    dBel84 Friend

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    Last edited: Feb 17, 2019
  18. msommers

    msommers High on Epipens

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    People here have spoke highly of the WBT RCA knockoffs...which ones specifically I'd have to hunt down. @zerodeefex may have mentioned it previously iirc?
     
  19. dBel84

    dBel84 Friend

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    Agreed re knock off WBT RCA, I almost exclusively use them for cables..dB
     
  20. bobboxbody

    bobboxbody Friend

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    @fraggler I immediately looked for a "higher quality" in line female 1/4" connector after making this post and then browsed the furutech site to consider purchasing another ridiculous 1/4" plug. Then I thought, maybe I need to look into some of that fancy wire so it can sit next to my spool of mogami.
    P.S. it was nice to meet you at ZMFestivus
     

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