DIY Cable Gallery!!

[chobint]

great idea for a strain relief

Cable#2:
18AWG core RG6, free from a dumpster on campus
Black nylon techflex, 2.50$
Clearance RCA jacks, 6.50$






Well the RG6 was about 10x easier than making cables from scratch, but I'm glad I made the scratch ones. Noise rejection of the RG6 is terrible by comparison (I can tune into the local RnB station around here if I hold the wires in the right position). I assume this is because the shield is the conductor on the RG6, whereas the shield on the twisted pair grounds to source side. I didn't think it would make that much of a diff to be honest. Learn something every day.




edit:...hrm now that I think of it, does the ground side even have to be connected at both sides for an RG6 connector? I forget if the ground channel is actually needed in signal wires or not

[apatN]

Originally Posted by qusp

thanks I really like the clear techflex, its the first time i've used it, it never looked right on my other LOD's but with the translucent coating on the jena and silver wire it works alright. i'm interested in giving this one a good listen because i've read that using a more highly conductive wire for the grounds (6N silver high 80's) as opposed to the signal wires (7N copper low 70's) has a greater effect than the other way around; which is what everyday logic would tell you to do... well me anyway. ALO uses this technique in their super cotton dock and they say its the best combination they have. and stevekelby swears by it. On this one not only have I done that but ive doubled the ratio of ground wires to signal. i'm gonna give it a proper going over later today and see what the fuss is about. theres some great cables on here alright... high end and the more budget varieties; some really great workmanship making the best of what materials are at hand.; I won't go on with that anymore because it could come accross condecending and that is not my intention at all. $$$ doesn't always mean high quality sound and there are some really great examples of hunter gatherer here; you couldn't tell them apart to look at them.

cheers

Nice, I haven't heard of that one yet. So you use copper for signal and silver for ground? I'm kind of anxious about trying silver. Read that it's brighter than copper and that's not what I'm after but this seems interesting. Do post your findings!

[qusp]

Originally Posted by apatN

Nice, I haven't heard of that one yet. So you use copper for signal and silver for ground? I'm kind of anxious about trying silver. Read that it's brighter than copper and that's not what I'm after but this seems interesting. Do post your findings!

thanks... Yeah there is actually something to it!! after some more xtended listening I would have to agree with them. this cable was only beat by the UBER expensive Crystal Cable dock which you would expect seeing as its made from 7N %99.99999 silver/gold, is at least ten times the price and is set up in a coaxial config. the cryo copper signal with cryo silver return dock had the best of both worlds; it had the quickness and detail you normally associate with silver, but with that certain lively and ever so slightly euphonic feel of copper. I dont have the science to back this up of course and is all IMO , but maybe it has something to do with there not being any kind of bottleneck stopping the spent or unused electrons from finding their way out of the way of the signal. Perhaps this unused energy can have the effect of clogging up the system so the decay of notes isnt quite what it should be. with the wires the other way around perhaps the signal would get gummed up; getting ever so slightly ahead of itself, having the effect of bloating the bass and muddying the detail and more complex information contained in the soundstage also none of the sibilance that can be associated with silver is apparent. I cant say i've been listening out for this effect with the cables that I have built in the opposite way. I will have to build one again to test it out. Its all rather esoteric this gear isn't it? I found that this cable excelled with live and layered music, conveying the atmosphere and high detail in portisheads NYC live albulm. This is a great test of equipment this album, because seeing as it is recorded live, but using some of the most advanced multitracking techniques and equipement of the time. The song Mysterions is a stand out track in this recording. the copper/silver cable was able to resolve the sparkling detail contained in the fantastic live drumming with complex cymbal parts, never allowing my SE530's to fall behind. At the same time a haunting and textural theramin and voilin passage never once overwhelms the complex swinging back beat and sweet sweet vocal. At this point the soundstage is at its widest and deepest point and the players are located mostly inside my head (i'm using IEM's) but there is no three blobs in the head syndrome here, the players are located with accuracy and consistency; never once drifting one way or the other or losing cohesion with the rest of the orchestra. The cressendo involves the vocal lead, strings, rhodes, electric guitar and sampled/filtered chaos and controlled discombobulation; this is brought together; interacting in a way where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. All the time maintaining seperation, the players are set in space with unerring accuracy but the sounds interact in a harmonic but not altogether cohesive and often chaotic way. Even separate voices in the crowd at the end could be discerned from each other with ease. A modern masterpiece; allowed free rein with the aid of this cable really F$#ked with my head.LOL. actually it was more involving than simply using the DAC and output stage of my RME, something I had not expected; not as accurate but definitely more moving.

thats enough for my first cable review (first review actually)I hope my language wasn't too colourful. I know this was a bit off topic but i'm afraid I got carried away

enough from me back to the cables

BTW. this test was executed using my iPhone Line out plugged into and bounced through my RME fireface and monitored at 88.2 KHZ through my SE530s. So there will be an element of digital reclocking and a superior output stage involved. The RME IS considered to have a very solid and stable clock; often improving any digital source that is passed through it. the effect in this case should be minimal as there is no clock syncing the analogue input to the analogue output. So if anything, this process should degrade the results somewhat by dithering. I tried to minimize this by oversampling. I could tell that the only thing holding the performance of the cable back was the quite acceptable but not excellent DAC in the iphone, I may just have to build myself a new set of XLR's for my RME

[apatN]

Hmm, very interesting. I may want to build one myself using Mogami + silver for ground. Please tell me, how many conductors did you use in total and how many for signal and how many for ground? And why did you choose to use multiple conductors?

[qusp]

Originally Posted by apatN

Hmm, very interesting. I may want to build one myself using Mogami + silver for ground. Please tell me, how many conductors did you use in total and how many for signal and how many for ground? And why did you choose to use multiple conductors?

for the one I used in the test its the one I posted above. I used 6 wires in totall 2 x 22AWG jena cryo copper and 4 return/ground wires using 20AWG cryoed high purity silver. in most IC's if there is more than 3 conductors usually they will add more ground wires rather than adding more signal wires. sometimes they will add more strands but the same volume of conductor because it has more surface area but due to having the same mass it also has the same or similar resistance. This thory is called the 'skin effect; where energy has a tendency to stick to traveling along the surface of a wire rather than being dispersed evenly throughout it. I did this to try and test this theory out in the xtreme by providing a MUCH larger pipe for the return leg than the signal leg. in this application it also has the benefit of allowing me to bridge the serial ground channel and the audio ground channel; which is needed for an LOD to work on the iphone and 2G touch. The idea being that hopefully if the waste or negative phase energy has an easier route to ground and out due to the higher conductivity of silver. then maybe that leaves the signal wire more available to do its thing without any residual signal there to 'clog up' the works. As I said I am not an EE and am only going by feel and my ears for this. It does make a certain amount of sense though if you think about it. And I am not the only one playing with this.

one thing though; i'm not sure whether this would work with just any copper wire. it would have to be very high purity copper 6N or 7N to present any advantage over straight silver wire. jena wire is 'special' we have a special relationship its probably worth you doing the experiment though to find out for yourself. I'd be keen on hearing what you think. because as always when you make a cable you tend to be byass towards it. I had a healthy amount of skepticism about whether this would work so I figure it evened out in the end.

[JamesL]

Silver might have a higher conductivity, (lower resistivity), but the resistance can easily be minimized by increasing the wire gauge of a conductor. Copper has a very low resistivity of around 16.7 nΩm, which is lower even than gold(24nΩM)(gold is primarily used for plating, as it doesn't oxidize, and is more malleable, resulting in better surface contact). If you're speculations are true, jumping to the next wire gauge would have a much more profound effect than using silver wire.

From what i've read, skin effect affects the linearity of a signal, as higher frequencies(albeit being at unaudible frequencies), tend to ride on the surface of the conductor.
It might help to litz braid the signal wire, but I've never seen it done with the ground wire with the effects of the skin effect in mind.

Like you, I'm no EE major either, and I'm going only by articles I read in my free time.

Regardless, "hifi cables" aren't heavily rooted in non-theoretical sciences.. so I'm pretty certain none of my above points really have any significant meaning.
I think it's good that you go by ear.

[apatN]

So the best (in this case) is to use copper wire for signal and then a thicker gauge silver wire (or two) for signal?

[qusp]

Originally Posted by JamesL

Silver might have a higher conductivity, (lower resistivity), but the resistance can easily be minimized by increasing the wire gauge of a conductor. Copper has a very low resistivity of around 16.7 nΩm, which is lower even than gold(24nΩM)(gold is primarily used for plating, as it doesn't oxidize, and is more malleable, resulting in better surface contact). If you're speculations are true, jumping to the next wire gauge would have a much more profound effect than using silver wire.

From what i've read, skin effect affects the linearity of a signal, as higher frequencies(albeit being at unaudible frequencies), tend to ride on the surface of the conductor.
It might help to litz braid the signal wire, but I've never seen it done with the ground wire with the effects of the skin effect in mind.

Like you, I'm no EE major either, and I'm going only by articles I read in my free time.

Regardless, "hifi cables" aren't heavily rooted in non-theoretical sciences.. so I'm pretty certain none of my above points really have any significant meaning.
I think it's good that you go by ear.

well ive got that covered as well the cable in the tests had multiple grounds of a higher gauge: signal = 22AWG jena copper, ground/return=4 x 20AWG silver. This is all theoretical stuff, i'm just having a bit of fun with the materials at hand. but regardless of how much of my results were subjective; I found it to have a noticeable effect. I doubt that the presence of more/more effective grounds is going to have a negative effect on signal. when it comes to the science involved in this and other theoretical endeavor it is pretty easy to find studies and theories to prove AND disprove anything. That is why i'm not going to attempt to quantify my results here. Are you saying it would be better to braid the silver and copper wires separately? interesting very interesting

[Hayduke]

Originally Posted by qusp

The idea being that hopefully if the waste or negative phase energy has an easier route to ground and out due to the higher conductivity of silver. then maybe that leaves the signal wire more available to do its thing without any residual signal there to 'clog up' the works. As I said I am not an EE and am only going by feel and my ears for this. It does make a certain amount of sense though if you think about it. And I am not the only one playing with this.

A tiny little detail that really doesn't matter in the long run...

The electrons actually travel the other direction.
The signal does flow in the direction you're thinking though. I'm not an EE either (although it was my major before switching to CS), so I can't really explain how that works :P

I'm not sure how that affects your explanation. I'm a bit of a nerd/geek so I always want to know the "why" of things, but something I've learned in my professional experience is, sometimes all that matters is that something works

[qusp]

Originally Posted by Hayduke

A tiny little detail that really doesn't matter in the long run...

The electrons actually travel the other direction.
The signal does flow in the direction you're thinking though. I'm not an EE either (although it was my major before switching to CS), so I can't really explain how that works :P

I'm not sure how that affects your explanation. I'm a bit of a nerd/geek so I always want to know the "why" of things, but something I've learned in my professional experience is, sometimes all that matters is that something works

so whats the name for a negatively charged electron then? is it gluon or one of those esoteric and elusive type quarks. Ask any of my friends about me and you will find that I too normally am obsessed with knowing the why of things. but in this field sometimes that can actually be more of a hindrance than anything else. that can stop you from being truly creative. besides i'm not here to analyze the music; i'm here to listen to the music