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What I have found - Makes a good Cable !

I just finished posting the following content in yet another thread.

I realized, I have posted many snippets from the text below in many other threads over the years, so I thought it would be a good idea to post this thread, so in future I can simply post a link to it, rather than regurgitate it one more time.

If you are interested in DIY cables I (with the helps of other members)  have designed and built take a look at this link

My Audio Alchemy (image99.net)

Hope you find this post useful

BTW - it is the :"Coles Notes" version - it can, and does get a lot more complicated!

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Having spent many years investigating cables, I have had first hand experience of how different things can positively impact the sound we get to enjoy from our systems

I have has success implementing cables on mini-systems costing as little as $200, up to pretty good systems in excess of $70k - other members have much more expensive systems and have observed similar improvements also

Unfortunately the cable companies like to spin their jargon as to why their cables are the best.

But the answer is pretty simple - a good cable will use...

  1. excellent quality wire - copper or silver
    • There are varying grades of copper in used, the best being UP-OCC copper
    • There are varying grades of silver used, with UP-OCC Silver currently being the best
    • What is the difference? - Conductivity
      • beryllium copper, teryllium copper, Bronze or Brass
        • are all copper alloys
        • their Conductivty is 70% or lower
      • Pure Anealed copper is rated at 100% and is the Benchmark for Conductivity
      • OFC copper is around 101%
      • UP-OCC copper is 102% -103%
      • Silver is 106%
      • UP-OCC silver is 107%
    • What is the benefit of using a high conductive metal ?
      • better details and improved clarity
      • better/faster dynamic performance
      • better/faster transient processing response
  2. good quality insulation
    • lowers cable related noise issues - so it lowers the noise floor of a cable
    • The Dielectric Constant (Dk) The ratio of the permittivity of a cable
      • is the metric used to indicate the electrical activity of the insulation
      • As the signal changes polarity in an AC sifgnal it charges the insulation in one direction
      • and then recharges it in the opposite direction when the polarity changes
      • this flip-flopping injects noise into the metal wire
      • using insulations with a low Dk reduces the maount of noise generated and improves clarity, details and imaging
        • PVC has a Dk of 4 (ish)
        • Teflon is 2.2
        • Foamed Teflon is 1.45
        • Cotton or Silk is 1.3
        • Air is 1.1 Vacuum is 1.0
  3. built using a good noise cancelling cable geometry
    • Cable Geometry is how the individual conductors are situated with respect to each other.
    • When you have two wires side be side in close proximity, as with many cables in use, you get distortions induced from one wire into the wire next to it
    • This is noise and impacts overall cable performance
    • "separating" the wires will be beneficial
    • Some examples of cable Geometry are
      • twisted pair (the most prone to noise depending on tightness of the twist)
      • braided (e.g. Kimber Kable products)
      • Helix Spiral designs (e.g. Anticables)
      • Ribbon designs - Like Nordost speaker cables
  4. use great quality connectors
    • many connectors use brass or some copper alloy, but as identifed above, the low conductivity metals will impede cable performance
    • Also, in the case of interconnects and speaker cables, the mass of the connector also impedes signal trasmisson
      • well enginnered Low Mass, high conductivity connectors provide significantly better performance
    • For Power connectors, pure copper or silver plated copper provides better performance
    • the flatness of the pins (US and UK style connectors) will also help

As with everything in this hobby there are improvements that can be achieved with "refinements" to the above basic design points and those refinements will be reflected in the cost.

RE: the "Power supply" to the system

  • most power supplies to the house are stable, but some people do experience noise related issues often from commercial builds that are close by,
    • This type of "noise" is generally tiny voltage variations on the AC signal
    • for this type of issue a good power conditoiner or power regenerator is often reqired
  • Othrewise, if the power supply to your house is relatively clean then simply having a good power cable to each component will improve sound quality, Why?
    • this is how it was explained to me by a very knowledgeable person with a wealth of Electrical Engineering experience
      • At each connection point in the "power supply line" i.e. at each breaker, outlet and plug - the transfer of electrical energy is only depedant on the quality of that connction and the quality of any wire used to bridge from one connection point to the next
      • This is why a good power cable will provide improvements in performance
  • A dedicated line from the breaker panel to your system provides noticeable benefits
  • Quality outlets, like Hospital grade MRI outlets from companies like Pass and Seymour, will grip the plugs more tightly and provide better power transmission

RE: the power supliies inside components...

  • Power amps tend to have very large transformers and banks of capacitors (i.e. compared to source components), which are designed to supply enough power, especially when large transient signals are encountered
    • But even the very best amps can also benefit from having a very good power cable
    • But for the best amps you will need an exceptionally good power cable in order to achieve any noticeable benefit
  • Source components, especially in the more budget oriented designs, tend to have a less capable power supply, so having a good power cable will provide a more noticeable benefit.
  • Wal-Wart power supplies are perhaps the worst - I avoid them or replace them

The cable companies I typically recommend include

  • Zavfino
  • In-Akustik
  • Hijiri

There are a few others, but these provide good and noticeable Bang-for-$Buck

Zavfino is a great place to start and their product line caters to many budgets and their products actually perform.

There are many opinions out there.

Some believe in the benefits of cables and other do not

So use the Audogon search feature to aquire knowledge from postings from other members pertaining to cables.

Apologies for the long post, but this subject gets complicaed very fast

Hope it helps - Steve

williewonka
williewonka OP
3,075 posts
 

@corelli - over the years I have used several solders with varying degrees of impact.

  • leaded solder were among the worst
  • lead free solders were a little better
  • high silver content solders were one of the best
  • but I now opt for eutectic solders

Several years ago, during a 4 year term at an advanced electronics fabrication company, I first became aware of Eutectic solders and the reasons why they were used i.e. they solidify as soon as the heat source is removed

So when I eventually obtained this solder as a DIYer,  I tried it in a variety of applications and found it almost matched the silver solder regarding sound quality, but it also made a significantly stronger joint.

I have tried various cables connection strategies, such as bare wire, crimped connectors, screw clamp connectors and soldered joints and to date I find the soldered joint (using eutectic solder) to be the best of all.

But that is with the connectors that I use....

  • KLE Innovations Absolute Harmony for RCA's (solder required)
  • KLE Innovatoins Harmony Banana plugs (solder required)
  • Sonar Quest Silver plated Pure Copper mains connectors
    • these are screw-clamp devices,
      • but I use small copper spade connectors to terminate the wires
      • this may have a very slight detrimental impact on sound quality,
      • but with mains cables i prefer to elliminate any chance of the connection working loose and failing
      • to date this has proved to be very successful from both a safety and sound quality perspective

Compared to the earlier connectors I had used, the ones listed above are vastly superior in every respect and because of their superior signal transmission capabiities, any impact that using that small amount of solder for joints may now have, seems to be negated by the superior transmisson capabilities of the connectors.

  As for your comment...

Just doesn’t make sense that if some appreciate a cotton insulation over Teflon, the solder issue would be far more audible.

The  impact of different insulation types of far greater than what solder is capable of impacting on a signal.

One example of this that had me perplexed for a while was people's preference for Duelund Tinned Copper with Cotton/oil insulatiion

  • it made no sense whatsoever, because tinned copper is not as good pure copper for signal transmission
    • then I realzied that what people preferred was the clarity of Duelund wire
      • which is due to the cotton/oil insulation having a dielectrc constant of 1.3,
      • compared to a copper wire with Teflon insulation, that has a dielectric constant of 2.2.

The impact of the type of insulation becomes more significant as the resolution of the components you select becomes finer.

Micro details that reproduce those tiny echoes and reverberations that travel around the venue were the first thing I became aware of. There was also a marked improvements in the focus of the image i.e. the placement of performers within the image and the air that surrounds them.

  •  being able to hear those tiny tiny details also suggests that the imapct of any soldered joint in a cable is minimal at best

Hope that all makes sense - Steve

williewonka OP
3,075 posts
 

@rarerace - my "benchmark cables" are the latest recipe of my DIY Helix Cables.

I have not actually tried either the In-Akustik or Hijiri cables to date.

So how could I possibly recommend them?

During the development of the DIY Helix cables I exchanged ideas and thoughts  with a great many people across the globe, as to the design of the cables, types of wire, types of insulation and types of connectors.

During those exchanges several of the participants have shared their observations regarding the performance of the DIY Helix, compared to some well established brands, among them, In-Akustik and Hijiri. 

Also - I have used a few other cables over the years, such as those from Kimber Kables, Van den Hul and KLE Innovations and the DIY Helix cables have proven to be signifcantly better, so based on my own experiences and feedback from others I have a pretty good ideas as to the performance level of the DIY cables

Lastly, I scoured the internet looking for design details/geometries about the best cables and how they were designed and built, in order to understand what makes for a great cable.

From that effort I recognized there were three companies that excelled in cable design techniques and developments, whist keeping their product witin a "resonable budget" - they are

  • Zavfino,
  • In-Akustik and
  • Hijiri.

 So as it stands that this point in time, it is the opinion of a few audiophles that I have a great deal of respect for, that...

  • they prefer the DIY Helix cables over the In-Akustik cables
  • but they prefer the Hijiri cables over the DIY Helix cables

I have found that when you get to cables that perform to this level of excellence,

  • the differences are minimal 
  • it can be a swings and rounabouts kind of difference
    • i.e. it can often be a matter of personal taste
  • there may be some element of system synergy at play
    • so one cable may actually sound better on another system
  • the listening room can have an impact on cable choice.

Are there better cables out there? probably,

But it seems from your post you are extremely happy with your cables and the reason for that is, they are both exceptional products that perform in top end of their market segment.

Regards - Steve

williewonka OP
3,075 posts
 

@mbolek - keep us updated here when you get the CCC wires.

The Zavfino wires look very interesting - 13 gauge might be good for speaker cables or mains cables?

Cheers - Steve

corelli
978 posts
 

@williewonka   Thanks for the thoughtful and detailed response.  I admire all the time and listening you have put into these DIY projects.  For me has always made for fascinating reading.  Thanks for your contributions and encourage you in future posts.

jaymark's avatar
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jaymark
511 posts
 

+1 for the Zavfino cable recommendation.  I use their Silver Dart graphene interconnects.  They are phenomenal.

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