DIY interconnect - return wire

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Some might think using a shield as a signal carrying wire cannot possibly be a good idea. Perhaps this explains why so many unbalanced cables use a proper return wire in addition to a shield, which has only one end connected......................
While in fact the best unbalanced RCA interconnects use a coax with a heavy braided shield. This way Common Impedance Coupling noise may be 20dB lower than those that use a small return wire.
 
Selling it & putting the money toward a proper cable would be one option. Then it won't be wasted.



I know. I even read the patent. Several minutes of my life I will never get back, and too depressing to even raise a laugh.



I'm not certain what 'TE copper' is referring to, but if you're talking about the Switchcraft 3502 that's not setting the bar very high because it's a rather poor connector. Too small, duff cable-clamping, pain to solder to a high standard... surprising given their reputation. Although in fairness, it's extremely cheap.



Indeed not. 'Eichmann ratios' being a prime example...

Hi Scott, i meant Tellurium copper, and yes very difficult to solder without damaging the plastic or deforming the rca The 3502AU i use the gold plated Switchcraft

TE = Tellurium, perhaps?

FWIW, intrigued by the buzz, I’d tried out both the Eichmann copper RCAs and speaker pod binding posts years ago. Honestly couldn’t hear any veils of obscuring haze evaporating, or whatever the blather at the time intimated, and the RCAs were particularly fiddle to work with. While I have some empathy for the idea of keeping the mass of conducting material on connectors as low as possible, the plastic outer shell is too thin for my liking, and the teeny set screw doesn’t provide sufficient strain relief. I had them fail several times, and the lightweight plastic into which the metal is imbedded is far too easily deformed by the heat of the soldering - particularly if using a shielded cable without removing much of the mass of the braid and pigtailing down to a more workable size.
XLR or even DIN connectors make more sense, although the latter are their own world I’d hurt.

Eichmann ratios indeed:rolleyes:

Hi Chris
Yes i meant Tellurium and yes Eichmanns are a paint to solder especially the cable pod socket.

It can be tricky to solder to if it's too great, having said that, I use Rean plugs which have a large mass and have never had a problem.

Hi Scott i used to use them, the Neutrik were too tight, but recently returned to using them as they are cheap and i am happy to say they are not as tight.

I bought a bag of cheap $2.95 of 10 gold plated Pro Signal RCA plugs , they are not bad and super light

Something like that. We had similar ones over here. For [relatively] low mass, I quite like the Neutrik (Rean) connectors. If I want something heavier-duty, the generic locking types you can find on ePay seem to do OK. I don't often bother making up my own leads any more though. There's some very nicely made leads out there now that cost very little, & since I can think of many things I'd rather be doing than soldering RCA plugs, I just buy a set when needed.

Hi Scott, yes those heavy rca plugs would put more stress on the rca socket, there is a nice cheap cable i can get out here is pure copper - microphone cable but seems good on the Tuners.

While in fact the best unbalanced RCA interconnects use a coax with a heavy braided shield. This way Common Impedance Coupling noise may be 20dB lower than those that use a small return wire.
 

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I'm not certain what 'TE copper' is referring to,...

{as said repeatedly} May be Tellurium-Copper, about 0.5% of TE added to Cu mostly for better machining with good conductivity. Bolts and terminals on electrical gear.
1968 Copper Development paper on Cu Te
Tellurium - Wikipedia

I do not see how conductivity of a small copper plug matters when we have a 10+K resistor on the end of the line. (In Power connections it matters.)

The search is mildly confused because "TE Connectivity" (a spinoff from the AMP/Tyco merger) makes a LOT of terminals. In all honesty this "TE copper" could be assorted scrap from the back of a TE factory.
 
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