[DarkWolf]

Well, before anyone asks, yes, I have searched and read for a few hours, so I've learned a bit and I'm not just hopping for info to be layed in front of me so that I don't have to do anything. (That would be kinda nice though

)

Well, I'm getting my amp very soon, and my phones are on their way, or at least, the payment is on its way and will arrive very soon so that the phones can ship... And I'm thinking, "Gee, what about cables? All I've got is a 12' Rat Shack gold series A/V cable!" I'm also thinking it might be good for me to make my own cables. If I invested around $100 or so in tools, inlcuding silver solder, (this is from a list I saw on another thread) I could then build fairly high quality cables for between 1/5 and 1/10 the cost of buying retail. But, since I'm a total n00b to this, and I don't want to sacrafice quality vs. decent step-or-two-above-entry-level cables, I need some advice.

For my 590s, the Equinox looks like my top choice for a cable upgrade, based on what I've read. (I've heard the cardas and clou blue on 580s and 600s, but not stock cables for them.) For interconnects, I think I should buy 1m sets. If I'm making them my self, I can probably take a bit off that though. On the conservitave side, I was thinking Outlaw PCAs, they are fine looking and very popular, not to mention modest in price. I've heard them, but not on my own equipment, and I didn't do any cable A/Bing, so it doesn't really matter, other than knowing I was happy about the build quality. On the less conservitave side, I was thinking Zu Oxifuel. These look really sweet, and I've read a few glowing reviews praising them as an amazing bargin in their price range, which is close to double that of the Outlaws. The only person I know here who has them likes them. Not that I've heard anyone bad mouthing the Outlaws in their price range either though.

However, for the price of any combanation above, I could make my own cables, and walk away with some nice tools and some new skills. I think that's a better deal, assuming I can make cables that are of similar or higher quality. If I get into making cables, I would also be able to justify the cost of some new AC power cords for my other stuff as well, which might be good. So far, the only experience I've had terminating wires was bad, but that's what I get for tring to fit 16 awg wire into mini plugs.. I ended up with banana plugs and no termination, and I was happy with the upgrade, so my over all experience was good.

I've now seen a few microphone cable recomendations, and read an RCA connector shoot out, as well as reading some gneral info on cable construction. It's all a bit much to take in at bed time though, but I've got some time to work it out before my stuff starts comming in, so I should be in good shape if I get some good advice. The kinds of things I need to know are what cables to buy to work with and what connectors are good. Well, what else is there I guess? But I might as well add that as far as DIY cables seem to be concerened, price isn't to big a deal since the point of diminishing returns seems to be much lower. Just no one reccomend any $150 RCA connectors, and I'll be fine. (I would say that <$30 for a set of 4 connecotrs should be perfectly reasonable..) Thanks in advance guys!

 

[Budgie]

I am a big fan of making your own cables. I use Teflon insulated wire in a two conductor twisted configuration. (The best thing about the teflon is the lack of melting when you solder.) I don't like silver bearing solders. Harder to get a good solder joint with silver bearing solder. Keep it simple, in my opinion, avoid the weird braided, or super fragile designs.

 

[Mr.PD]

Hey DarkWolf, I am going to watch this thread with you. I have some of the same questions.

I made a couple of mini to mini cables. One I did with some CAT5 wire. It sounds better than the cable that came with my TAH. The other I used some silver plated belden 8451. I pulled it out of the jacket and ran two lengths of it one for each channel inside of some CAT5 jacket with Switchcraft right angle connectors. To be honest I can tell a very slight difference between the Belden and the CAT5, I just can't put my finger on what is different.
I found that my soldering got better with practice and a smaller soldering iron. I melted the insulation out of one plug on my first attempt.

Where I live I have a major problem buying cable. I will have to order everything. So please mention a good place to order from.

 

[rickfri]

I have built several pair of the Jon Risch Belden 89259/89248 twisted pair cables, and found them to be very good. They are not inexpensive to build, but are more inexpensive than the commercial products that compare. If you do a google/yahoo search on Jon Risch you will get his DIY page. I tried just now but the website was down so can't give you the link. If you want to try out some of these cables, but don't want to order a whole bunch of parts and cable www.diycable.com sells a kit called the "Fat Ones" which is one set of these cables. They run $63 for a .5 meter pair or $75 for a meter pair.
There are also many other recipes for DIY cables, including a fairly inexpensive one using magnet wire and tape. If you do a search in the DIY forum on DIY cables you should be able to find some links and information about DIY cables.

 

[mkyy]

darkwolf,

Here's a few popular links for DIY IC:

SST (silver signal tape)
http://www.soundstage.com/synergize/synergize021998.htm

Jon Risch 89259 IC
http://www.geocities.com/jonrisch/index.htm

Ven Haus silver IC
http://www.venhaus1.com/

 

[slindeman]

Some of the easiest to make, and a good starting point, are the Risch 89259 ones. You just take the cable, do some stripping, some soldering, and some heat shrinking. Takes 20 minutes and costs about $35 using nice Cardas rhodium/silver RCA plugs. The sound is quite neutral, and these cables are sold for around $80 commercially. The 89259 uses Teflon for insulation and for the outer jacket. The downside is that it doesn't have a separate shield, but I haven't had any noise problems where I've needed the separate shield.

 

[DarkWolf]

Thanks guys, keep it comming. I'll have more questions some time tomarow, but for now I'm just going to listen to a little more music and go to bed. I'm beat!

 

[DarkWolf]

All right, I've read over the links provided by mkyy, and it looks like there are some very prommising, and easy to build desighns out there.

So now I've got some questions. First of all, why are these guys reccomending such small wire? All the comercial brands seem to go bigger for more expensive wire, I think.. On the one hand, it seems like it might be easier to sell the idea that bigger is better, but if it wasn't, I'm sure each and every one of them would have some gee-wiz proprietary idea for why smaller wires are better. I could use some explination I guess.

I lookeed at the signal tape idea, and It seemspretty interesting, as well as cost effective, but I think I need some shielding, since I've got m amp right on top of my computer and there is a lot of AC power going though that area as well. The Ven Haus desighn seems like the best on for me so far. But should I really use 32 awg wire!? That's SO small! It's like a hair or somehting. I think telephone wire is like 20 awg or something, and that's pretty darn small. I know a line level signal hasn't got much juice, but damn! 32 awg? I need a bit of a pep talk before I can buy that. Anyway,I think I would also like to try building his AC power cord desighn. It looks pretty high quality, and cost effective, so I could probably build three or so for all my stuff.

My last question for the time being is about ferrite kits. They must work, or they wouldn't come standard on cheap monitor cables.. Should/could they be used anywhere? I've seen them on power cables, do they really clean up the power any? Would I want to put them on cables I make, as well as cables I already have? How do they work, and is their any disadvantage to them. Would they do anything for IC cables?

Thanks again everyone!

 

[DarkWolf]

Hey, maybe some nice mod should move this over to the DIY, section. I should have posted it there in the first place...