Try this simple DIY interconnect cable.


Okay, I'd like to weigh in here on the cable issue. First, let me make it perfectly clear that I am not the world's greatest cable expert, I have never heard Valhalla's, Jena Labs, or alot of the others. I am a regular working Joe who thinks that cables do make a difference but can't afford $5k-$10k to buy them. I tried out an idea that I read on the web, and changed it a little, and I thought it sounded great on my system. So here it is, a nice sounding IC for dirt cheap. Go to the Rat Shack and get their magnet wire pack($2.99). I used the 30ga for mine, but you get 26ga and 22ga spools in the pack so you can use thicker if you like. Go to Lowe's and get the 1/4" polyethylene tubing in the icemaker parts section(25ft for $2.50) Get a couple rolls of teflon tape($1.00). Cut off 1 meter(or what you need for each channel) of tubing. Wrap it with the teflon tape in a spiral. Take your magnet wire and wrap a spiral around the entire length with about 2" spacing(18 turns per meter).Leave a couple inches extending on both ends to solder to the connectors.Then wrap the whole length again with teflon tape as a jacket.Make sure the wire gets covered - no gaps. Then thread another piece of the same guage wire down the tube and out the other end. Leave "tails" on both ends, like before. Solder your favorite RCA plug to each end using the center conductor for signal, and spiral wrapped wire for ground. The ones I used had a spring type strain relief that fit right over the teflon covered tube perfectly and looks professional. Then make one for the other channel. Takes about 2 hours total. They're flexible, sturdy, don't fall apart, look good, and sound real good on my system. Now, you can make your comments about inductance, capacitance, whatever. What we've got here is a good sounding cable with a mild level of RF rejection, teflon dielectric, reasonable spacing between conductors, for a dirt cheap price. I would like an enterprising individual with some good quality cables to make a pair of these and see how they stack up against a good commercial product. Dr. Gizmo, where I got the basic idea from, said that they were better than all his exotic stuff. I don't know about that, but they do sound good on my system. Maybe we could all get lucky and be able to save alot of cash.Probably won't beat Valhalla, but for many of us it might be good enough. Share your thoughts, please. And I would love to hear a report from someone who made them and compared.
twl
what connectors do you recommend? also, instead of putting the signal wire down the middle, what about wrapping the signal wire around the tube as well, spaced out so they don't touch? and is there any advantage to using teflon tape coated polyethylene tubing rather than plain old teflon tubing? trying to figure what route to go. must upgrade from monstercable and don't want to go broke.
Good question. I did not try wrapping both conductors, evenly spaced, around the tube. I did read about that method though. The reason I put the signal conductor down the middle of the tube is because it is a much oversize tube and I wanted the "air dielectric" around the signal wire. I didn't find any teflon tubing in my hardware store, so I used polyethylene. If you can find teflon, then I think that would be better, or at least just as good. I think the "air dielectric" idea actually works, and I used the same oversize tubing on my 22ga solid core speaker wires with a separate tube for each conductor. I spaced them apart with 2" spacers and got very good results from them too. You can experiment with this stuff pretty cheaply, so you can try different methods. I am not claiming this is the greatest, but it does sound real good for very little money.
This is basically the Chris Venhaus design, which can be found here: http://www.venhaus1.com/diysilverinterconnects.html. This particular recipe uses thin (28 - 32 gauge is recommended) silver wire.
Based on this design, I built an XLR interconnect (the pin1 -> pin1 wire loosly spiralled around the outside) just a few days ago and I'm about to assemble an RCA interconnect as well. And with some braided sleeving to cover it, it looks just as professional as anything out there.
It's not broken in yet (and silver is notorious for being slow at that), but from briefly listening to it, I can say that it sounds at least equal if not better than my HT ProSilway mkII (tad more detailed and extended).