The Max Rochlin Memorial Cable - FYI

[swede]

Hi,

No big deal. Just wanted you to see that I can do some nice stuff too. I always get so jeallous of Peter Daniel and his nice casings, so I had to contribute to the community as well... I've build a dozen or so signal cables and this is what it looks like:

[IMGDEAD]http://www.skip.informatik.gu.se/~kmg/diyaudio/projects/max_rochlin/pics/008_close_up_klar_kabel.thmb.jpg[/IMGDEAD]

Check out how to build it here:

http://www.skip.informatik.gu.se/~kmg/diyaudio/projects/max_rochlin/

or

http://www.enjoythemusic.com/etmcable.htm


Best regards,
//magnus

 

[swede]

PIC

The picture:

 

[jleaman]

HUmm good page thanks swede hey how come they put heat shrink over the rca cover..

 

[swede]

Heat shrink over cover

Hi,

Thanks for asking!

I've done some extensive research on how the cable sound with and without the heat shrink shielding. Somehow the sound is so much more clear when I use the shielding, and when I did some measurements I came to the conclusion that it sounded even better with the shrink wrap that far up on the connector.

;=)

Sorry for the joke. But putting it on that way was just for the looks. No reason what so ever. Some of you guys probably don't like the heat shrink to go up that far, but I kind of like it.

Best regards,
//magnus

 

[jleaman]

i doo to but you want to hear my idea since you started the topic and i was going to start is sooner but havent gooten any pics and parts yet..

well since i have cabel out my ying yan im going make use of it but since it loks horrible for colour im going to take mountian climbing rope and put the cabel throught it and then put shrink tube on the ends like yours.. but mine will have colour.. : O )

the cabel im using is not ccheap either..

 

[swede]

Mountain climbing rope

Kind of cool to use mountain climbing rope for protective shielding!

Way to go, man! Show us pictures when you're done!

//magnus

 

[jleaman]

yeah is should look awsome and then ill do tha same for my speaker cable

 

[HarryHaller]

Somehow the sound is so much more clear when I use the shielding

Try clear heatshink with a little hot melt glue under it. Also use braid that is smaller than the wire in it's unexpanded state so that it fits snugly;and use two or three layers of it. Digital cables can be tunend very effectively also with these constructions. Some of the stiff Colored braids sound better than the black braid. I have also used PVC tubing with good results on interconnect and digital cables.

H.H.

 

[swede]

HH I think you're right! The tighter shielding you get, the better it sounds. I believe this is mostly true on digital cables, keeping more bits on the "inside", since some of the fastest bits othervise cut corners if the cable is bent.

The downside on using PVC tubing is that it cracks easily when you try to run too much music through them. I'd go for clear scotch tape instead.

;=) This thread is loosing it...

//magnus

 

[dice45]

HH,
the last thing i had expected from you is

Colored braids sound better than the black braid.

kinda wire directionality stuff :dizzy: but i heared other's, famour Dieter Ennemoser among them claim the same. Unless i tried it out myself, i say "possible, maybe"

Magnus and all,
did you ever try out UNshielded cable? i mean, a twisted pair of enamelled copper wire, as thin as possible? Try it, as far as no shielding is needed concerning hum and noise, i always preferred it. I also had a homebrew phone cable, shielded, then i switched to unshielded which was considerably better. Same for line level interconnects.

I agree completey, cables are µphonic, singl strand cables even more. It is wise to keep them from moving, particularly to keep both condictors from moving against each other.

I used PTFE tubing to protect the ultra-thin twisted pair; i widen the ends of the tubing with my soldering iron at 355°C . Then i can attach RCA plugs with rip-off protection. An improvement which is thinkable but not yet tried out: pulling a wool thread into to tubing together with the wire, to keep the wire from moving.

Next time i have my camera hooked up, i post pixes.

 

[jh6you]

Once, I have heard that one driver said to his wife
in the passenger seat, ¡°You know what that 30 is¡¦?
That means no more than 30 words per hour.¡±
And, yeah...he said, ¡°PVC-tubing creates nice sound,
particularly when the PVC is of white color.¡±

 

[HarryHaller]

Colored braids sound better than the black braid

The colored braid I use is made from a stiffer material (some type of nylon I think). The same rational goes for the clear heat shrink which is is different material than the black. Just plain mechanical engineering, no magic.......

H.H.

 

[mrfeedback]

Sound Flavour

Bernard you should try making your interconnects totally non directional by making them in star star quad configuration, and the conductors as they come off the reel connecting active from the source to the load and back again, and the same for the neutral (or - phase) conductor.
If you twist this assembly carefully and preserve star quad configuration over the length of the cable, I am sure that you will notice a nice difference.
Years ago I had this setup between my cdp and power amp that were in fixed positions, and this allowed me to use exact length interconnect wires (1mm diameter 6 nines purity copper with silver plating) soldered directly to the plugs sticking out the back of them.
The wires were diagonally about 4mm apart.
I tried a polyethylene filler rod down the middle and wrapped with white teflon plumbers tape or standard office sticky tape, with and without thin teflon insulation sleeves (of 2 different colours) on each of the 4 conductors per channel, and with all conductors in either direction.
I found the 3 teflons to impart a definite sound character, as did the cellotape.
The best however was without any filler rod and the 4 bare wires placed in space in the direction cancelling and star quad arrangement.
After fitting and experimenting with these interconnects is when this system really came to life and gave fantastic depth imaging, and even sounds from behind.
I did not try the experiment of closely twisting the wires (because I did not like the sounds of the insulations/dielectrics), but I expect this should work nicely with your thin enamelled wires, but in your case you will be at least doubling shunt capacitance and halfing series resistance, and a lessening of series inductance.
This in itself will likely change line level source to load characteristics, but this may be a good experiment for your self to guage wire directional characteristic or not, and open the mind.

Harry, I think the effects you describe are more than mechanical stiffness.
I have found different sounds with different coloured otherwise same tubings - this is an effect due to change in dielectric properties due to differing pigmenting materials I am sure.
Black plastics commonly contain a cadmium compound, white commonly titanium compound - red I dunno.
I do know that I won't drink out of black plastic or porcelain though.

Regards, Eric.

 

[HarryHaller]

Harry, I think the effects you describe are more than mechanical stiffness

Mechanical properties like stiffness and loss. The electric field is in between the center conductor and the shield, so material outside
shield has very little effect on dielectric. Mechanical damping is pretty big deal on most cables. Try it....

 

[dice45]

Eric,

I do know that I won't drink out of black plastic or porcelain though. Regards, Eric.

I would. My preferred teapot also comes in porcelaine noir. Too expensive, but looks gorgeous. As we both are now guilty of threadjacking, Harry can enthuse about putting us into sin bin

To your cable: you lost me, you overloaded my imagination. If you did not have your tongue in cheek, please post a drawing, 3D perspective style please

 

[mrfeedback]

Field Effects

Hi Bernard consider this.
Assign a direction to segments of wire cut from a reel, with names such as the cut end and the reel end.
Now I mean that the active connection should constitute 2 wires consecutivly cut from the reel and connected in reverse wrt each other.
The same process for the neutral connection.
Now place these 4 wires in star quad configuration (the 2 active wires placed diametrically opposite, and the 2 neutral wires diametrically opposite but placed 90* wrt the active wires.
Now whilst keeping this star quad arrangement twist one end (4 wires together) to make a twisted star quad interconnect.
In my experience this will remove (cancel) any wire directional characteristic, and give really nice depth imaging.

Harry, I agree that tight cable does make a profound sonics difference, and I expect that dielectric properties are altered by compression, but this is not thge only factor.
In my experience proximity of different materials outside the braid can also make a sonics difference, repeatably and reliably.

Regards, Eric.

 

[dice45]

Eric,
hmmh interesting but how can i make this single strand? ...Yanno, i follow the single strand religion.

 

[swede]

Holy cheeze...

I never suspected this when I started the thread. I just wanted to show a simple way to make a simple cable look nice. ;=)

Well, I'll just post it under useful tools and techniques"...

Have a good one!
//magnus

 

[Peter Daniel]

Eric,

Usually one direction in a wire sounds better than the opposite. Wouldn't it be better to check which direction sounds better in the beginning and then using only two wires take advantage of it?

The solution you propose seems good for people who cannot decide which direction sounds better.

 

[jleaman]

i know this migh be a stupid question but is there realy directional cable for singnal .. i would think that cable is cable but i never heard of bi-directional cable.. ( no need to start war but i never new that)

j'