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Good cable for making short interconnects?

post #1 of 7
10/22/09 at 1:03pm
Thread Starter 
Hello,

Finally going to start learning how to do some DIY stuff. First things I wanted to try are making custom interconnects. I have small components that I will have either stacked on top of each other, or sitting right next to each other. What is a good quality cable that I can use for short runs of 6-8" that will be flexible enough to not strain my jacks?

Canare Star Quad seems to be popular. How flexible is it?

I am looking for stuff I can get for $1 a foot or less if possible. Canare is only $0.50 a foot.
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post #2 of 7
10/22/09 at 1:42pm
I have some ultra-flexible, ultra-lightweight cable you can have (I had a small run made in dark red, but I don't think I'm going to be using it).

The only drawback is that it's not very novice friendly, as it uses an ultra-fine litz wire that really needs to be properly tinned in a solder pot before terminating.

However if you're not needing to make a whole bunch of cables, I could cut it to the lengths you need and prep the ends for you which would make it much easier for you to terminate.

I don't have a photo of the red, but here it is in brown.



It's a simple parallel pair construction. The two litz wires are braided over with unbleached cotton with red and black color coding tracers, and the pair is braided over with a dark red cotton jacket.

If this is something you'd like to use, let me know.

se

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post #3 of 7
10/22/09 at 2:30pm
I like Nucleotide wire for short interconnects--easy to braid, easy to terminate, and does OK without techflex. I guess the hardest part is you've got to make the joints fast because you'll melt the PE casing, but it's easy once you've done it a few times. Get some cheap connectors to learn on before shelling out for switchcraft, etc.

Also, it's pretty affordable (I think $2.50/ft) so not too painful to experiment with.

http://www.doublehelixcables.com/wire.html
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post #4 of 7
10/22/09 at 5:21pm
Thread Starter 
Thanks for the offer, Koyaan. At the moment I want to stick to something like what kb1gra suggested, simply for the looks. I am going to be experimenting with lighting and such and having clear pe casing appeals to me. That being said, I will certainly keep your cable in mind, because dark red appeals to me (I have been thinking of customizing my headphones with some dark red cushioning). I am also a little scared of your cable because I haven't learned what tinning means yet

Lauren, that cable looks great, especially braided. I already have an idea I want to try with that kind of braid and some fiber optic cable. I am going to start by getting some elcheapo copper wire from monoprice (only like $15 for a 50 foot spool) and practice with throw away connectors. Once I feel better about it, I think that nucleotide cable looks awesome.

Once I feel comfortable with my handiwork, I am thinking about completely tearing apart and rebuilding my SRH840's with new cabling, a new jack, and custom pads (I might need to run some ideas by you in a PM since you seem quite handy with everything I have been considering using).

But in general simple copper cables with thin sleeves ought to work?
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post #5 of 7
10/22/09 at 5:31pm
why not grab even cheaper wire from navships on ebay... i think its like 8$ for 50ft of wire.
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post #6 of 7
10/22/09 at 5:46pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by FraGGleR View Post
Thanks for the offer, Koyaan. At the moment I want to stick to something like what kb1gra suggested, simply for the looks. I am going to be experimenting with lighting and such and having clear pe casing appeals to me.
Okie doke.

Quote:
That being said, I will certainly keep your cable in mind, because dark red appeals to me (I have been thinking of customizing my headphones with some dark red cushioning).
I wouldn't recommend using that cable for a headphone cable. It's as flexible as you could ask for, but it's a bit big for headphone cables. And because it only has two conductors per cable, you'd need to use one per channel.

Though when I make up a proper headphone cable, I'll keep red in mind.

Quote:
I am also a little scared of your cable because I haven't learned what tinning means yet
Heheh.

It's just where you apply a coating of solder to the ends of the wire. It's not a bad idea for regular wire (it helps make soldering easier and more reliable), but the wire in the red cable is litz which is made up of fine gauge magnet wire which is coated with very thin enamel. Although it's "solderable," it's better to dip the ends into a solder pot to "strip" the enamel off.

Quote:
But in general simple copper cables with thin sleeves ought to work?
It's worked for over a century.

se

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post #7 of 7
10/22/09 at 9:22pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by FraGGleR View Post
Lauren, that cable looks great, especially braided. I already have an idea I want to try with that kind of braid and some fiber optic cable. I am going to start by getting some elcheapo copper wire from monoprice (only like $15 for a 50 foot spool) and practice with throw away connectors. Once I feel better about it, I think that nucleotide cable looks awesome.

Once I feel comfortable with my handiwork, I am thinking about completely tearing apart and rebuilding my SRH840's with new cabling, a new jack, and custom pads (I might need to run some ideas by you in a PM since you seem quite handy with everything I have been considering using).

But in general simple copper cables with thin sleeves ought to work?
Sure. To be honest I tend not to even sleeve the nucleotide wire since it's PE coated anyway...I'm lazy. They would probably look better with techflex. I guess that's a matter of opinion.

As far as copper cabling, that should work absolutely fine. Copper does have a "sound" to it but I think that it would work OK with the SRH840. Silver isn't something I'd experiment with just yet...and personally, I don't care for silver.

Cheap wire from monoprice is a good place to start practicing, though if you plan to use some PE wire definitely order some to try with since soldering with the PE takes a little getting used to.
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