My house is the inverse, pipe smoking wife sat in front of giant speakers, me in the kitchen cooking (nice Pinafore though, once she found out I was the better cook my life went downhill), modern house (paper mache walls) two cats, two lazy moody irritating teenage twins left at home, and décor whatever colour She fancied this week...🙂
Ok I finished my project. Here is what I went with. 26 gage .9999 silver wire, cost $0.45 a foot from a jewelry supply, Pure OFC silver plated RCA's. I sleeved the conductor and return individually with 100% cotton tubing, (bought 90 yards of it for $15.00 from London), marked the return with a black stripe, (magic marker worked well for this), and then twisted them as a pair one twist per 2". Before I twisted them I gently put a wrap of Teflon take over the center conductor cotton tube. I then threaded then through Teflon tubing, (Home Depot 1/4" PFTE tubing $0.55 a foot). Over that I put a pure OFC silverplated shield/braid, (purchased from London as well for $36.00 for 75'). The cable was then double wrapped with 1" wide Teflon plumbers tape, ($0.85 for 70' from Gangers), and over that went some expandable polly braid.
After silver soldering the center conductors I shrink wrapped them so that the center conductor on the inside of the RCA was covered. I then soldered the return lines to the left side of the RCA and shrink wrapped that as well up to the solder joint. I then shrink wrapped the return and conductor with the PFTE Tubing being covered as well. I then soldered the shield to the right side of just one of the RCA's. I marked this RCA with some electrical tape for the time being. This will be the destination end. I then slid the polly braid into the RCA and shrink wrapped that as well so that the RCA will have something to bite on. I then tightened the set screw on the RCA and used Locktite Blue. Then I put the cover on the RCA and used shrink wrap on the last 1/2 of the RCA and 2" going into the RCA. I then marked the destination end of the cable with a stripe of white fingernail polishI found in the dollar store for a quarter.
I repeated the soldering process and shrink wrapping on the other end with one exception. I terminated the shield 1" before the RCA and it is not connected to the source end. I now have two 3' solid silver RCA Interconnects that not only look HOT, (black and blue polly braid), but I can hear the difference. Highs come alive, mids pop, vocals sound like they are in the room with you. All total I spent about $25.00 for a pair.
After silver soldering the center conductors I shrink wrapped them so that the center conductor on the inside of the RCA was covered. I then soldered the return lines to the left side of the RCA and shrink wrapped that as well up to the solder joint. I then shrink wrapped the return and conductor with the PFTE Tubing being covered as well. I then soldered the shield to the right side of just one of the RCA's. I marked this RCA with some electrical tape for the time being. This will be the destination end. I then slid the polly braid into the RCA and shrink wrapped that as well so that the RCA will have something to bite on. I then tightened the set screw on the RCA and used Locktite Blue. Then I put the cover on the RCA and used shrink wrap on the last 1/2 of the RCA and 2" going into the RCA. I then marked the destination end of the cable with a stripe of white fingernail polishI found in the dollar store for a quarter.
I repeated the soldering process and shrink wrapping on the other end with one exception. I terminated the shield 1" before the RCA and it is not connected to the source end. I now have two 3' solid silver RCA Interconnects that not only look HOT, (black and blue polly braid), but I can hear the difference. Highs come alive, mids pop, vocals sound like they are in the room with you. All total I spent about $25.00 for a pair.
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Good for you. It's a hobby, it should be fun and fun on your own terms and no one else's. I for one have noticed no one mentioning how for instance there are a lot of people - including myself - who DON'T like silver in their cables, etc. Just because something is 'exotic' doesn't automatically mean oooh it must sound better to an audiophile. There's feedback all over the internet of people who find silver harsh, trebly, fatiguing, etc, etc. despite the $$$$. I would go as far as to say silver is *not* the preferred material for audiophiles based on what I've read over the years, despite the cost. So what is that some kind of reverse audio'phool' psychology? A whole bunch of 'bad' cables? Funny how that particular part of the 'objective' argument is left out consistently.
You like your cables, enjoy the hell out of them. Your ears in the end, no one can tell you what you hear no matter much bandwidth they waste on the internet.
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Ok here is the picture of my first set of cables
PICTURES!!! This is my first set. 3' long, 26 ga. .9999 silver wire inside 100% cotton tubing, shielded with pure copper silver plated braid, OFC copper RCA's silver plated. 😀 Total cost for the set.... $28.00 2 hours of time, practice soldering, something cool to do and lots of fun and a ton of satisfaction listening to them. I do hear a difference between these cables and the cheap RCA's that I had laying in a drawer. Now my Kenwood KA9100 sounds not clearer, but crisp, more alive.
PICTURES!!! This is my first set. 3' long, 26 ga. .9999 silver wire inside 100% cotton tubing, shielded with pure copper silver plated braid, OFC copper RCA's silver plated. 😀 Total cost for the set.... $28.00 2 hours of time, practice soldering, something cool to do and lots of fun and a ton of satisfaction listening to them. I do hear a difference between these cables and the cheap RCA's that I had laying in a drawer. Now my Kenwood KA9100 sounds not clearer, but crisp, more alive.
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Merri,
then at least one pair of interconnect cables was causing the attached equipment to misbehave and thus interfere with the signal being passed.
Which combination is misbehaving more, cannot be assessed from your listening test.
then at least one pair of interconnect cables was causing the attached equipment to misbehave and thus interfere with the signal being passed.
Which combination is misbehaving more, cannot be assessed from your listening test.
no matter the sound ... price is low, and they look great
I don't think they are silver plugs, but whatever 😀
I made my own RCA interconnects using gold plated Neutrix RCA's and a length of WiFi antenna extension cable...
Solid copper core insulated with PTFE and a shielded mesh "ground"...looks like aluminum...?
I have 3 more pairs of RCA's laying around and will experiment with different cable...
Will I hear a difference...? Probably not...
But it's fun to experiment!
The OP's design sounds an awful lot like VenHaus wire...
http://www.venhaus1.com/diysilverinterconnects.html
Sent from my iPhone...
Solid copper core insulated with PTFE and a shielded mesh "ground"...looks like aluminum...?
I have 3 more pairs of RCA's laying around and will experiment with different cable...
Will I hear a difference...? Probably not...
But it's fun to experiment!
The OP's design sounds an awful lot like VenHaus wire...
http://www.venhaus1.com/diysilverinterconnects.html
Sent from my iPhone...
Checked both with a vohm meter all is well. Now that they have ran 48 hours in th3 system they sound better. I think they are showing issues my amp has due to age. ..... wonder how the sound would change if I have it serviced. It was made prior to 1980 l think and has never been serviced. Anyway I am thinking of making a tube buffer/dac for it now.
Double checked and one cable had the grounded/shield end connected to the source not the amp. Sounds better now.
noo, silver is just not always a good thing
try thin solid copper wire instead, maybe tinned
The formula that I used was the Venhaus one, I just over built it by adding the single grounded shield. Also found sources ALOT less expensive. I considered solid silver RCA's but I was not going to pay the price point what companies want for them. I will wait until a company in China makes some.
I am going to make another set which is of my own idea though. Less materials, even less money, faster to make. Like I said previously I have a butt load of extra materials now.
My other idea was thin wall 16 ga PFTE tubing with one wire in each. Twisted every two inches. Using the same RCA's that I used before, (I have 4 more sets), shielding it, covering it. No Cotton. No spiral wrapping around a core material, OMG that was a pain. Finishing it the same way. If I wanted to get real cute, I could add a third tube with just some 12 ga copper stranded wire in it and do a braid using the copper as a woven shield. Or another set with the return in copper, the source in silver and braided shielding.
I am going to make another set which is of my own idea though. Less materials, even less money, faster to make. Like I said previously I have a butt load of extra materials now.
My other idea was thin wall 16 ga PFTE tubing with one wire in each. Twisted every two inches. Using the same RCA's that I used before, (I have 4 more sets), shielding it, covering it. No Cotton. No spiral wrapping around a core material, OMG that was a pain. Finishing it the same way. If I wanted to get real cute, I could add a third tube with just some 12 ga copper stranded wire in it and do a braid using the copper as a woven shield. Or another set with the return in copper, the source in silver and braided shielding.
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