The Zero-va Interconnect a DIY project

In this first installment I want to share the design goals I used to reach the final design for this new interconnect. I will also give some details of how the final interconnect sounds; how well it works.

In the second installment I will give a materials list and some details on how to prepare the materials. If that post is not too big I might continue on to the building instructions. Otherwise, the building instructions will be in a third post.

I wanted to create an interconnect design from a clean piece of paper. I wanted to create as close to the ideal interconnect as I could, but at a reasonable cost! Of course the ideal interconnect would act as if it wasn't there at all. It would pass the signals from the source without any changes at all. It would pass the whole bandwidth of the source and it would not change the slopes of transients.….nothing.

The first goal was to reduce or eliminate the reactance of the conductors. In other words, I wanted to reduce the capacitance and inductance both to the lowest levels practical. It is the reactance that tends to color the sound by changing frequency responses and introducing timing changes.

Second, was to use the minimum material in the conduction path. I have heard that too much material can cause some noise issues (whether this is true or not I'm not sure, but instinctively I felt that a minimal conductive material makes some sense).

Third, while keeping the material down I still wanted to keep very low conduction losses. This means low resistance. As you can imagine, this constraint will mean a balancing act between the amount of material used and the quality of the material.

Fourth, I wanted to use the best materials available for the job, but without breaking the bank with costs.

Fifth, I wanted all the materials to be easily available. Something you can find in your home town and not have to send away for.

Sixth, I wanted to minimize any audio smearing due to any storage effect of the insulation. Therefore, I wanted to use insulation that has a low dielectric constant.

As you can imagine trying to meet all the design goals, while keeping it real world and reasonable requires some compromises. However, I tried to keep the compromises to a minimum.

When all is said and done I believe I have succeeded in meeting most of my design goals. I will allow you to decide that for yourselves.

Please don’t think I have created anything earthshaking, I have looked at many interconnect designs and borrowed some of the best ideas that made sense to me, putting them together to meet my design goals.

The final product!

The interconnect is made mostly with materials you will find at your local hardware/building store and/or fabric store. The materials are of excellent quality, but do not cost a fortune.

Most important.….how does it sound!

This interconnect is the closest thing I've heard to a perfect interconnect. The moment I first heard it I thought, now I'm hearing all the music. I was blown away how effortless everything sounded. Even the very high frequency sounds were effortless and clean. With other interconnects, even when the high end is present and reasonably in control, the sound has either been strained and hard or soft and mushy. I heard more details in the music than every before. Each instrument or voice was clear and separate from all others. Transients (percussive) were fast and sharp, but totally natural without over-emphasis. Voices are clear and natural. The bass is tight but strong, but again not mushy or boomy.

Another first impression I had of the end product was I'm hearing the output of the CD player; without any changes or distortion. In other words I had the feeling that anything about the sound I liked, or didn't like, was because of the CD player (and the rest of the system) and had nothing to do with the interconnect. It was that clean. The same can be said for the sound staging. The sound stage seemed to be as good as the recording. For some CDs it was just average, existing between the speakers. For other, better, recordings the sound image went well beyond the speaker limits. In some instances the music gave that wrap around your head sense. Certainly the interconnects were not constraining the imaging in any way. Even for imaging, the interconnects gave that effortless sense.

Compared to this interconnect every other interconnect I have tried seems “colored” in comparison.

The transparency of this interconnect does not translate to “neutral”, meaning boring. Rather you could call it “neutral” meaning not colored. The sound reflects the capabilities of the rest of the system and “feel” of the recording. With exciting and dynamic music that is what the sound was. With laid back or quieter music that is what you get.

Timing was also not a problem with this interconnect. The timing of the music came through unchanged and undistorted. If the musician “had it” you could hear it. If the musician didn’t have it, well you could hear that to.

Is this the perfect interconnect? Of course not. Is there room for improvement, I’m sure there is. But I’m thrilled with the end result of my experiments. I would suggest that this cable would be competitive with interconnects costing several hundreds of dollars but for a lot, lot less.

Next time … the materials and the preparation.

Questions or comments are welcome.

ROVA