DIY Cable and Interconnect site

[ChrisVH]

Hello, everybody. Just wanted to give you a "heads up" that I have recently added a DIY AES/EBU Digital recipe and Mains Power Cord recipe to my site (which also includes the DIY Cat5 Cables and Silver Interconnects). Please stop by and let me know what you think http://www.geocities.com/venhaus1/index.html

 

[Lisandro_P]

Thanks for the info! I might build those CAT5 cables one day... i'm curious if there's really an audible difference when it comes to inductance and capacitance in cables. I'll keep you briefed.

BTW, good thing you like Natas! I've seen them live a couple of times. Great band

 

[FrankDIY]

BTW, my CAT5 cables are almost done, I will post the project ASAP on my web site (and my impression).

I used CAT5 shielded network cable with gold plated reducers.

Nice, easy and short project

 

[pixie]

Oxy-Free Copper

I found this at Mouser.

172-6511FT 87cents/ft.

It's oxygen-free copper wire with shielding. I'm going to use it with gold plated connectors for interconnects. Especially my component video from DVD to TV. I learned my lesson trying cheap cable for those. It just doesn't work. The picture flutuates and generally has bad color etc.

The cable should come today. If it works for my TV, I'm sure it will improve over my Monster Cable interconnects for audio.

I use 6ga stranded copper for my speaker wire. I run it through galvanized steel pipes behind the wall. I don't think you could possilbly improve on that for a reasonable price.

later,
pixie

 

[pixie]

No good.

I tried to make one interconnect. It's very hard to work with. Just the slightest pressure on the shield and the resistance between shield and the center connector goes to only 10kohms!

I'm going to run the center pin outside the strain relief. That should fix that problem. But, I wouldn't recommend this cable.

pixie

 

[ChrisVH]

What interconnect did you make? My recommended recipe does not call for a "shield". The part # at mouser that you noted has a couple of materials that I have found to degrade sound in a high resolution system:

1) stranded copper (solid core thin gauge copper or silver will reduce skin effect and limit "time smear", in addition to avoiding the "strand jumping" and diode effect that you get with stranded conductors": see Magnan's site

2) the jacket is PVC, which has a significantly higher dielectric constant than Teflon.

3) I have found coaxial designs to be inferior to twisted pair or "helix" type designs.

In my experience, I have found that low capacitance, thin ga., unshielded IC's to be optimal- at least in MY system.

Did you actually make or listening to the IC recipe on my site?

I have yet to have anything less than glowing reviews of this IC, which is why your comments puzzle me.

Good luck on your project, I hope it does well for you

 

[ChrisVH]

Natas rocks! You are very lucky to have been able to see them live. Do they ever get to the States?

 

[Lisandro_P]

Actually, i really don't think they've ever got outside Argentina... a pitty. Really tight band.

 

[ding]

Cat 5 Speaker Cables

Chris,

I recently finished my own Cat 5 cables as per the design on your website. I must say I am very impressed with the difference they have made to my system (I was using ordinary oxygen free cable). When I first auditioned them I could not believe the detail and clarity of music I was hearing. I recommend this project to anybody with time but not much money (took me 2 days and cost nothing!).

Thanks chris great cables

dan

 

[goodas]

I have also made cat5 cables in differing configurations and none of them has been as good as QED silver anniversary cable.

The cat5 cables seem to emphasise some frequencies, which perhaps gives an initial perceived improvement but I found in the end that they robbed my system of life and were undynamic.

 

[miguel2]

I did some interconnects using CAT5 and found that shielding is a very important factor here. I used aluminium foil (from the kitchen) to wrap the cable and connected this to the earth wire. Works fairly good.

 

[mozilla]

Hi Cris,

I plan to do your silver IC design using nylon rope (first wrapped in teflon tape) as the "core". The "braid" of the nylon rope should serve as a guide for the helix pattern.

For added protection against a possible short betw. hot & ground, I plan to slot one of the wires (hot? or ground? Which one do you recommend?) thru teflon tubing.

I look forward to the finished IC.