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Anyone else making their own cables?

Over the years I have owned a lot of different brands of very sought after and very expensive cables(interconnections both balanced and single ended and speaker cables). Each time selling and then trying another. I recently have been experimenting with making my own. I have been doing a lot of reading on the subject of design. Also I have been dissecting some old inexpensive ones I had lying around. I am starting with ic's. From my experience and what I have read, when done right balanced is the superior method. What I had not realized is that single ended cables can be balanced as well. In fact Annolog(vinyl) starts out as balanced. This is the way I have chosen to make my cables. Also I have found that grounding at the receiving end and simply connecting the grounds at the sending side works best and in my view is the only real reason for directional cables. I have been using wbt and eichmann ends. I would like to hear from others with knowledge of design, cable types and materials, soldering, end type(brands) and their benefits and covers to improve final appearance. I would also be interested in any other point I have not mentioned or to simply disagree with any assertion I or anyone else makes on this subject. I do realize that cables are the single most controversial subject in this hobby. I am not trying to settle that argument. Just offer another option. It may even prove cheaper to buy a brand cable then make your own. I do not have a degree in engerneering nor am I an electrician or computer genius. Just a long time audiophile. My single ended cables are for vinyl set up(turntable to step up transformer to phono stage). Balanced everywhere else. My system is fully balanced(as earlier described) from end to end. Thanks for informative insights.
128x128pkoegz
almarg's avatar
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almarg
9,670 posts
 
Thanks, Tim (Mitch2). Well said, as always. After re-reading PKoegz's posts I suspect that you are right. If so, my suggestion would be that it would be better to refer to such cables as having a symmetrical pair of conductors, or something to that effect. Or perhaps saying that they employ symmetrical construction, or perhaps even that they employ balanced construction. Saying that some "single-ended cables are balanced" seems like an oxymoron.

Best regards,
-- Al
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swampwalker
5,138 posts
 
Hi Al- Not really on-topic but no, the EMC-1 did not have inverted phase, it flat out did not work w conventionally wired XLR cables. No sound. Nada.
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almarg
9,670 posts
 
Hi Michael,

That's really strange. I took a look at some rear panel photos of the EMC-1, including the -UP and MkIII versions as well as the no suffix version. The XLR connectors appeared to be standard 3-pin male XLR's, as would be expected for outputs. In most cases a pin diagram for the XLR connectors was marked on the rear panel, which showed the standard convention used in the USA and many other countries of pin 1 = ground, pin 2 = +, pin 3 = -. The physical locations of the pins that were depicted in the diagrams properly corresponded to the indicated pin numbers.

The only possible explanation I can think of for why you got no sound using a standard cable is that the connectors were not wired per the diagram, but were miswired with pins 1 and 2 swapped (a mistake that's not hard to make, because those pins are symmetrically located), AND the design of the unit was (as is sometimes the case) such that the signal on pin 3 is generated by an inverter stage whose input is the signal that is applied to pin 2. In that situation both signals in the balanced signal pair could very conceivably have been forced to 0 volts (i.e., grounded) when the CDP was connected through a conventionally designed XLR cable to a preamp having pin 1 grounded per the standard pin convention.

Best,
-- Al
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swampwalker
5,138 posts
 
Al said
In most cases a pin diagram for the XLR connectors was marked on the rear panel
Interesting...it's been quite a while but as best as I can recall, the unit I had did not have the pin-outs marked. And I think I remember that it was "upgraded to -UP", so maybe it was an early version that had non-standard pin-out, which was changed for later production. When I sold it, I sold it w the cables since they would not have been good for anything else. Or maybe I dreamed the whole thing...
williewonka
3,075 posts
 
Pkoegz - you can see the construction method of my cables if you look at my "System" Link below

The IC's are all single ended and mostly use the KLE Innovations Absolute Harmony RCA's - the SPDIF uses the Pure Harmony.

I've played with different architectures for a couple of years and the current design works best with the least cost.

They take around 300 hours to fully burn in and their cost range from $180 to $240 for a 1 meter pair - depending on the RCA's used.

I'm currently running my DIY IC's on my digital rig and they are exceptional performers.

I've compared them to some expensive silver Kimber XLR IC's, priced around $1200, on a friends more expensive system and found my DIY's to be significantly more detailed, dynamic and engaging.

The power cables provide the best performance I am still yet to beat with store bought cables - not that there aren't many that may beat them - just not for the price of their construction.

I've compared my power cables to a couple of store bought cables priced $1000 and $1200 for a 5ft cable and mine appear to be on par with their performance.

The SPDIF was my latest experiment - I never thought it would work as well as it does. I've tried both 1/2 meter and 2 meter cables and there was no difference in performance using sample rates from 16/44 to 24/192.

They are significantly better than my old Van den Hul SPDIF cables and edged out one very good cable I borrowed priced around $700 (1 meter). I'm currently using this between my v-link192 and my Schiit Bifrost DAC.

I believe the KLEI Harmony RCA Plug range are largely responsible for the effectiveness of my IC's - using other RCA's will not yield the same results - I've tried Furutech and a few other brands - but they all pale by comparison.

Some "light" reading... Cable Architecture

Hope you find it of interest :-)

Reards...
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