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DIY interconnects ... found MUCH success

I have spent the past few months making MANY different DIY interconnects and testing them in my system. I've spent probably $600 on materials from MANY different sources, and have spent countless hours listening and cataloguing the results. And I have came to this conclusion :
Jadem6 is mostly DEAD ON ! While this poor fellow gets ribbed heartily by many for his extensive and outlandish experiments in the DIY realm, I have a feeling he is probably getting the last laugh !
Let me cut to the chase : I did almost EVERY experiment while making my own interconnects that he did , and more ..... And the ONLY thing I did not do that he did, is experiment using pure gold connectors ... I simply could not justify affording gold.
However, I did use probably 10 different brands and sources of pure silver wire. I also tried EVERY wire gauge and wire combination possible ! Here is how it ended up shaking out:

Straight parallel runs of conductors spaced 3/4" apart do indeed sound the best of ALL possible combinations.

Three 30ga strands of silver for the positive conductor do indeed sound the best of ALL possible combinations.

One strand of 23ga silver for the negative run do indeed sound the best of ALL possible combinations.

Eichmann Gold bullets sounded best with silver ( I did try silver Eichmann RCAs with ALL of the different brands of silver wires, but found it made the sound a little to "white" sounding in my system, a traight silver is often known for. Gold seemed to give it that perfect warmth to blend perfect with the silver wires ).

Where JD and I differ is on the construction of the outer jacket of the cables: JD was trying to make the perfect cable that could also be SOLD and stand up to consumer usage. I was trying to make a perfect cable that I could use in MY system, and KNEW it would never be abused in any way.
Therefore when I ended up using a pure unbleached cotton weave material that is flat, I was finished. I sleeved the conductors in 2mm cotton sleeves, then threaded it through the cotton weave material at 3/4" intervals. Almost ZERO dialectric effect, and the spacing stays perfectly constant due to the weave being somewhat stiff.
I've never heard a better interconnect, and have owned the VERY BEST brands offerings, from Valhalla to Tara Labs.
So here's to Jadem6 .... You have the basics covered perfectly in my book !
timtim
jadem6's avatar
jadem6
1,074 posts
 
Hi Tim,

Thank you for your thoughts, and supporting my past efforts. We sometimes risk ridicule for being compulsive, but for those who care, the effort is appreciated.

You certainly did your homework, and it's great to see your efforts. I think your method is far simpler for the average DIY'er to achieve, so I applaud the result.

LamCam, I believe Tim meant to say solid gold conductors. I did not use solid gold connectors, but the wire used in my project was solid 99.99% pure gold, and it is indeed very expensive. The costs of trial and error DIY work is quite high compared to building someone else's recipe without testing other designs. Add to this the cost of solid gold wire, and it can easily cost $5000 or more to develop a gold cable from scratch. In silver these costs might be closer to $300, so you can see why Tim chose to stay away from gold.

Objective if you hit the "review" link under my name it will lead you to the DIY Interconnect review I wrote a couple years ago.

Again thanks for the efforts Tim, and it's great to see so many questions from others who want to try this very rewarding project.

jd
bombaywalla's avatar
bombaywalla
1,958 posts
 
Hi Timtim,
looks like you have been very busy constructing DIY cables! ANd, you have had great success. COngrats!
I looked at you pix & got some idea of your technique.

Is the cotton material weave pretty stiff so that it maintains its flat, broad nature? In the pix it is very hard to tell whether than 1.5" - 2" cotton material is stiff or flexible.
Once you have 3 conductors thru the weave, where is the single return signal cable?
Further, how do you bring all the wires to 1 point to connect to the Eichmann bullets?
Perhaps some pix of the finished product would be very helpful & much appreciated. Thanks very much!
jimjoyce25
215 posts
 
It seems pretty clear that no manufacturer could produce interconnects this way.

And so the question arises: At this point, is there any expectation of being able to buy the highest quality interconnects from a commercial supplier?

The answer may well be: No.
timtim OP
84 posts
 
Hi Bombaywalla ... The cotton weave is not overly stiff, but once you get both positive and negative conductors through it, both sides folded over on themselves, and a couple of small beads of hot glue to hold down the folded sides, it is then plenty stiff to stay perfectly formed.
The conductors are pulled throuh whre the white cotton is in the photos ... pos on one side and negative on the other. As far as connecting to the bullets, I just press it together where it enters the back of the connector.
76doublebass's avatar
76doublebass
254 posts
 
Hi I've been experimenting as well and found solid core 18 guage tv cable coax nice for speaker cable and need to try these out as IC's.
I do have a question. Did u use solid core cable from the Cardas wire listed in Michaels Catalog or the Kimber AGSS
Solid silver?
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