Wire from PCB to RCA jacks (CD Player Output)

[KP11520]

Hello,

I have 25 gauge silver hookup wire. I want to replace the short, cheap, shielded wire from the PCB to the RCA jacks in my CD Player. I have the matching teflon insulation on the side and can also get cotton insulation as well.

First, Cotton or Teflon? My feel is cotton. Lower capacitance (supposedly).

Second, do I twist it after applying the insulation or run it parallel? If twisting is the answer, how many turns per inch?
This is where I am not so sure. I come from a Data Networking background and UTP gives the best results in structured cabling plants and patch cords.

Or do I get better shielded hookup cable again?

Thanks everyone!

Regards//Keith

[Steve Eddy]

Personally I prefer cotton to Teflon. Though the dielectric constant of cotton isn't as low as some claim it to be. That figure is for raw cotton. In textile form, it's higher. But I prefer it just the same.

Silk is nice too. If you EMail me a mailing address, I'd be happy to send you a couple of feet to play with if you'd like.

Twisting can't hurt. Also, I'd just insulate the "hot" wire and leave the ground wire bare.

Good luck!

se

[kevinkr]

Were it me I would go with the teflon sleeving and twist the two conductors together. Cotton leaves the possibility of shorts when twisted if the weave is coarse.

I'm not too sure you are going to hear much if any difference. The traces on the pcb play a role as do the quality of the passive components, op-amps and discretes used and the merit of the original design.

High quality rca jacks will improve the reliability and integrity of the connections, but again the improvement is likely to be subtle unless the existing jacks use swaged/stamped parts and have oxidized even slightly - in which case the improvement can be quite audible.

As part of a package of other carefully thought out upgrades these are the icing on the cake so to speak.

[Extreme_Boky]

Originally posted by KP11520
Hello,

I have 25 gauge silver hookup wire. I want to replace the short, cheap, shielded wire from the PCB to the RCA jacks in my CD Player. I have the matching teflon insulation on the side and can also get cotton insulation as well.

First, Cotton or Teflon? My feel is cotton. Lower capacitance (supposedly).

Second, do I twist it after applying the insulation or run it parallel? If twisting is the answer, how many turns per inch?
This is where I am not so sure. I come from a Data Networking background and UTP gives the best results in structured cabling plants and patch cords.

Or do I get better shielded hookup cable again?

Thanks everyone!

Regards//Keith

You don't need any insulation. The best sounding conductor in my opinion is pure silver ribbon, annealed, without any insulation. If you HAVE to use insulation, natural cotton sounds very good. I’ve tried Teflon but with silver, the cotton sounded more pleasing. The amount of twisting is directly proportional to loss of space around instruments - I always avoid twisting if I can (applies to everything but valve gear - in which case you may even have to use shielding as well).

I’ve done a fair bit of modifications with nothing but silver ribbons, replacing hook-up wiring as well as power supply / mains power wiring (with wider, thicker and in some cases multiple runs of silver ribbons). The results are outstanding! (in particular if applied to valves equipment like amps / pre-amps. Even replacing the 100mm copper lengths with silver ribbons makes easily noticeable difference.

Boky

[KP11520]

Thank you Gentlemen!!!!!!

Hey Boky, enough of Modding all this equipment (although it would be a huge loss to mankind) and your list is very impressive and getting bigger. Also, thank you for documenting so much of it, it is very helpful! You need to start your own web-site called "Boky's Silver Ribbons" and ship the ribbon all over the world. Both you and your supplier friend might be able to retire much sooner! It isn't that easy to find and you could be that easy place.

But before you do, I would like to spend a couple of weeks woking in your shop as an apprentice. That would be a great vacation for me (although I don't think my wife would agree).

Steve, thank you for your kind offer and yes, I will leave the ground wire bare!

Kevin, I am now looking into female RCA jacks too. Something that will work without too much modification to the back of my Rotel with high value (high quality, reasonably priced).

Thanks again!

Regards//Keith