Single wire interlink experiment?

[squadra]

This morning i was bored and wanted something to do, so I decided to build some interlinks.
I used 2m silver coated copper wire (0.4 mm) and folded it twice to get 4 parallel strains of 50 cm.
Twisted those 4 strains and then soldered both each end into a rca plug.
Repeating these actions a second time resulted in a 2nd interlink.

I replaced my current interlinks between the DAC and pre amp with the new interlinks.
The grounds have been connected by a 3rd wire using 4mm bananaplugs.

To my ears (brain?) it is a big improvement over the current interlinks (van den Hul, The Second).
Since these wires are completely unshielded and built with just standard materials I wonder if somebody could build a similar set and repeat the experiment?
(The blank wires can cause a short when they touch eachother, so you might want to use some tubing.)
What could be the reason for this improvement, I only could come up with 'less capacitance between signal and ground' and 'you are biased because you built them yourself'?

[Magura]

From my experience its hard to make bad interconnects. I make interconnects of a twisted pair of Habia E-1819. I have chosen that particular wire type cause its strong and its silver plated to avoid long term use corrosion issues. Ive made a number of blind tests and found it impossible to differ between the DIY version and any good quality commercial interconnect.

There is a trick to making DIY interconnects though. Dont make a blind test. You will automatically consider the sound of the interconnects youve made an improvement. I was unfortunately stupid enough to destroy that feeling by making blind tests

Magura

[squadra]

Originally posted by Magura
Ive made a number of blind tests and found it impossible to differ between the DIY version and any good quality commercial interconnect.

You should have built your interconnects to my 'specs'

I'm still positive about the improvement, heard several new details on various cd's today.
Maybe sometime soon I can arrange a blind test with some friends. The only possible negative result would be that mine are rated lower then the other links, any other result would be good.

[squadra]

Originally posted by squadra

Maybe sometime soon I can arrange a blind test with some friends.

Finally I had 2 friends come over to compare my home made interlinks to others (Van den Hul the Second & Siltech MXT Paris).

One of them thought the bass was slightly better defined and heard no big differences.
The other one found my diy interlink to be more transparent than the others.

Now I just need to add some isolating sleeve and nicer plugs (current ones are from an old oehlbach cable, as are the blue sleeves)
The blue interlink is the Siltech MXT and the yellow is an old van den hul D102 connected to my xbox.


Another thing I will do is replace the unisolated 4mm terminal with an isolated one.


So, all in all i'm still very happy with the experiment's results.

[Tim__x]

Was it blind?

[squadra]

Originally posted by Tim__x
Was it blind?

No, this was not a proper blind test.
My friends did not know which 'brand' the new interlink was.
But they did know against which ones they were comparing.

[Hybrid fourdoor]

When making cables do you guys connect both ends of the ground/shield?

I read on one page to only connect at one end. When I tried this it created super buzz on one system and worked on another. But connecting both ends works fine.

Seems to make sense to connect at both, just for safety sake if nothing else.

[analog_sa]

When making cables do you guys connect both ends of the ground/shield?

Ground and shield isn't the same. If you do use a shield you may connect the ground to it at only one end and this will not create any additional hum - very possibly less. The ground, otoh, needs to be connected at both ends.

[dazydee]

Nothing around the conductor that can interact with the signal but Air, which is almost as good as vacuum, and good Material.

Of course it should sound good!

[squadra]

Originally posted by Hybrid fourdoor
When making cables do you guys connect both ends of the ground/shield?

I read on one page to only connect at one end. When I tried this it created super buzz on one system and worked on another. But connecting both ends works fine.

Seems to make sense to connect at both, just for safety sake if nothing else.

The shield should be connected in both plugs on the 'source' side, although some people claim otherwise. You could try both and see what is best in your system.

Connecting the ground in only one cable leads to a difference (capacitance etc.) between both channels, so this doesn't seem like a good idea. Don't know if this difference is big enough to be heard.

Originally posted by dazydee
Nothing around the conductor that can interact with the signal but Air, which is almost as good as vacuum, and good Material.

I always thought I lived in a vacuum