Cable Building

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

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  1. AllanMarcus

    AllanMarcus Friend

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    Nice!

    Here's my list of Y-Splitters. https://sites.google.com/marcusfamily.info/diynotes/home/y-splitters?authuser=0

    If anyone find more, let me know and I will add them to the list.

    If anyone has the E-SXT-001, please let me know how much it improves your listening enjoyment! :)
     
  2. iFi audio

    iFi audio MOT iFi Audio

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    These pics will do, nice effort!
     
  3. bobboxbody

    bobboxbody Friend

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    Just finished a pair of RCA interconnects with pretty green Mogami 2549 and Canare f10 connectors. White heat shrink indicates the side with shield to ground, thanks to @fraggler for the graphic a few pages back. Hooked em up and I'm suddenly hearing a recessed mid-range and reduced mid-bass compared to my cheap 20yr old RCA's probably from Best buy, is this in my head? I don't think I've ever noticed much sonic difference between cables, I've just made them for fun and soldering practice. Anyway, here's a pic:
    [​IMG]
     
  4. AllanMarcus

    AllanMarcus Friend

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    You should hear very little difference between well made cables. Check your solder joints and make sure there are no shorts with a multimeter. You can also check resistance of each wire in the cable (tip to tip, shield to shield) and make sure there are no surprises.
     
  5. bilboda

    bilboda Florida boomer

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    white side is the source? Maybe you are hearing your gear better now, the old cables may have given you elevated mid bass and foward mids
     
  6. monacelli

    monacelli Friend

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    For what it's worth, I've been experimenting with building my own interconnects. Would I say the differences between the cables I've built are huge? No, but I do think they each have their own flavor, and that their sonic footprint isn't that hard to discern. I used to think Marv's cable rolling thread was too "out-there", but now I get it. At the moment, Belden 1192A is the front-runner for when I re-do my system.
     
  7. bobboxbody

    bobboxbody Friend

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    I just pulled out my multimeter to check resistance and the battery died. I will investigate tomorrow with fresh ears and a fresh 9v.
     
  8. AllanMarcus

    AllanMarcus Friend

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    I thought I remembered a mention of these connectors a long time ago. @bobboxbody, just a thought.
     
  9. bobboxbody

    bobboxbody Friend

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    Evidently the lowest resistance my multimeter will measure is 0.5ohms, which was the result for both cables tip to tip and shield to shield.
    Listening to some reference tracks today, I think my mind had blown the difference in sound way out of proportion initially last night. It's too difficult to really A/B the cables but from memory I think the only difference with the new cables is a bit more high frequency extension.
    I'll probably try removing the metal spring strain relief at some point and see if I can notice a difference.
    Thanks for all the helpful replies.
     
  10. ohshitgorillas

    ohshitgorillas Friend

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    edit: ignore, responding to an old post because I was too dumb to refresh the post. sorry. please delete if possible
     
  11. Brad Tombaugh

    Brad Tombaugh Facebook Friend

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    Measuring the DC resistance with an ohm meter doesn’t tell you much besides continuity. When you apply an alternating current signal, which generates both an electrical field and a magnetic field, the cable will exhibit inductive and capacitive reactance, measured as impedance, which will vary by the frequency. Differences in materials and construction can affect the impedance at different frequencies, which may create a noticeable change in the sound.
     
  12. toddrhodes

    toddrhodes Friend

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    Question for the group. I'm building some VHAudio RCA interconnects. I'll have materials to build either:

    2 x 3' cables

    or

    1 x 1.5 foot pair
    2 x 2 foot pairs.

    I could effectively connect both legs of analog (table to pre, pre to line stage) as well as digital to line stage with the second option. The first option, 2 pairs at 3' feet each, would only connect phono pre and digital to line stage. I do have a very good cable from table to phono pre, today. But I think having each leg "the same" would be beneficial, on some level. But my concern with the 2nd option is that if I change the layout, at all, I basically cannot use those cables. They are not cheap, even for DIY.

    What would you do? 2 pairs of cables that can be used in various configurations, or build to spec on the current setup and understand that going forward, the gear has to be laid out this way in order to use them?
     
  13. bixby

    bixby Friend

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    Simple!

    Evaluate the chance that the configuration may change. Any number at or greater than 50% chance then choose option A the 3 foot pairs.
     
  14. willsw

    willsw Friend

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    If there's no technical reason you want very short cables (like you need extremely low capacitance), I'd go with the 3' pair unless you or someone you live with are very bothered by having a little extra cable behind the components. Outside of specialized uses those lengths won't make any difference and I'm sure at some point you'll appreciate the extra length, like if you need to temporarily move a component for some reason. Also, if you're doing the full-fancy VHaudio recipe and decided to change cables later, it'd be easier to sell a 3' pair and make some return.

    Are you doing the wound around a tube RCA cable? I was thinking about doing a budget version of that.

    Unrelated:
    This may be known already, but I only recently discovered that when making cables out of Mogami or Canare star-quad you can twist each pair going to the headphone and then use a heat gun to set the twist. Don't overheat! While this doesn't feel as substantial as putting a length of heatshrink over that section, it is much easier, more flexible, and takes much less time. I suppose you could employ a bit of heat to add structural stability to anything sleeved in PVC.
     
  15. toddrhodes

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    Thanks gents, solid points. I will proceed with just doing two 1m pairs. I don't have any specific reason to keep them shorter and would like flexibility down the road. Much obliged!
     
  16. uncola

    uncola Friend

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    when I first DIY'ed cables I also went super short and solid core because obviously less cable length = less electrical loss so better sound. but over time I realized I couldn't hear any difference and having to unplug the interconnects any time I needed to pick up or move the gear slightly was super annoying. Just make them a reasonable length with some slack in back
     
  17. toddrhodes

    toddrhodes Friend

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    So while I wait for the rest of my parts to come in to make 1M RCA's, I started making the VHAudio Cat5 speaker cables tonight.

    My god, what a chore. I'm half done with one cable, and I've got probably three hours in. I think I could braid spaghetti with my eyes closed, now.

    Stripped the jackets off of 7 lengths of 10' of Belden Cat5 (with the proper insulation, per Chris' instructions). Then you untwist all the pairs, and each channel loses one of the twisted pairs. So you start with 28 pairs per side, but only need 27. This is me organizing it all in my living room, lol
    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    They are arranged in nine sets of three pairs. Each of the 9 gets braided together. Then three sets of three braided pairs of those get braided together and finally you make one big braid from the resultant three looms. I'm not even that far yet, I just have all 9 groups of three braided together.

    What one looks like
    [​IMG]

    What 9 of them look like. These will eventually braid down to one "wire." Then I separate striped from solids, strip 54 wires at each end, twist together, and terminate with spades. And then do it all over again for the other side.
    [​IMG]

    Sure hope they're worth the effort. At least they didn't cost much, got the box of 500' of cat5 on ebay for $50 and I'm only using about 25% of it.
     
  18. AllanMarcus

    AllanMarcus Friend

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    Or you can get 50’ of OFC 12AWG wire from monoprice for $26

    :D
     
  19. toddrhodes

    toddrhodes Friend

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    :)

    All done.
    [​IMG]
     
  20. Armaegis

    Armaegis Friend

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    My arthritis hurts just looking at that :confused:

    Hey who remembers that brief period in the mid 2000's when there were some mini amp/speaker systems and they just used straight cat5 and rj45 connectors instead of speaker cables/bananas/binding/spring posts?
     

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