[The Monkey]

Yikes, I'd be interested in your impressions re the headphone amp, so please do report back.

 

[Pricklely Peete]

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Monkey /img/forum/go_quote.gif Yikes, I'd be interested in your impressions re the headphone amp, so please do report back.

X2

Peete.

 

[ztsen]

Hi, is it significant improvement to change D5000 from SE to balance?

 

[IPodPJ]

I just got an e-mail from a DIYer from the Audio-gd forums. He had this to say:

Dear Phil
I'm a guy from HK,one of the DIYer since 1964 ,now I owned A-gd gears CD3
RE1 C39 and C1 but not the head-fi'er .I only have D2000 for slave listening!
We discovered Kingwa use the original inout lead wire not the good way to show all the performance for his products! now we used Cardas single Litz wire instead the silver wire Cardas Single Wire picture by scericli - Photobucket
If you believe what I say, all the sound from phoenix will be great improve!


So does anyone want to give this a try?

Edit: This DIYer, Eric, also called Kingwa to tell him this. Kingwa confirmed this but says it would add to the cost of the Phoenix which he doesn't want to do. Perhaps you could have him do this as an add-on for extra cost.

So what's involved in switching out the in/out leads? I sent an e-mail to Kyle @ RAM asking if he can do this for me, and if he sees any other parts that could benefit from replacing to do those too.

 

[Pricklely Peete]

It would be a fairly easy project IMO PJ. The wire itself you'd likely only need 1m of it to completely rewire the I/O jacks on the back panel (and have some left over).

If you find a source for this wire let me know...I'm definitely interested in this tweak (for the CD7 and RE1 as well).

I bet 2M worth would be plenty for all 3.

Peete.

 

[IPodPJ]

Is this it?
I just don't know what gauge we need.

Cardas 15.5 awg. copper litz hook-up wire Blue

All sizes:
http://www.partsconnexion.com/wire_hookup_cardas.html

 

[JamesL]

15.5g is speaker-wire territory. I'd use the 23.5g.
You can also get cardas litz from michael percy's audio

 

[Currawong]

Cheaper here too. That would be worth my while doing, re-wiring all the connections. Pity there aren't 3 colours though.

 

[Yikes]

Please be forewarned; To properly work with Litz wire you need to have a Solder Pot that may need to maintain temperature up to 800 degrees F. It's a royal pain in the ass, and IMO not even the best wire to use. But I can't say.

Not to mention that if kingwa had a lick of sense any such modification would void the warranty.

 

[Pricklely Peete]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Yikes /img/forum/go_quote.gif Please be forewarned; To properly work with Litz wire you need to have a Solder Pot that may need to maintain temperature up to 800 degrees F. It's a royal pain in the ass, and IMO not even the best wire to use. But I can't say. Not to mention that if kingwa had a lick of sense any such modification would void the warranty.

Good points.

Peete.

 

[les_garten]

I just re-cabled some Denons with Cardas 4x24 Litz and it is a PITA even with a Solder pot.

Litz wire - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

You also have this niggling feeling in the back of your mind about whether you got every strand stripped. If I were a betting man, I would bet that 90% of the Litz wire done by DIYers is improperly terminated.

Here's a PIC of the end of Cardas 4x24 showing approx 16 individual strands in each conductor. Each individual copper strand is insulated from all the other strands. You can imagine how difficult to get each one stripped properly.

.

 

[Pricklely Peete]

Thanks for the heads up Yikes and Les.......the prep this wire requires has given me considerable pause for thought.

I have some 22 ga solid silver wire (+ Teflon tubing ) that would be far easier to work with but I'm not sure it would be a leg up from the stock wire (stranded silver plated copper ).

Having to hand scrape all those individual connectors on the Cardas litz.....yeesh.

Peete.

 

[les_garten]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pricklely Peete /img/forum/go_quote.gif Thanks for the heads up Yikes and Les.......the prep this wire requires has given me considerable pause for thought. I have some 22 ga solid silver wire (+ Teflon tubing ) that would be far easier to work with but I'm not sure it would be a leg up from the stock wire (stranded silver plated copper ). Having to hand scrape all those individual connectors on the Cardas litz.....yeesh. Peete.

I think the theory of Litz wire is awesome. I'm never quit certain even with a solder POT if I got all the wires stripped. Anybody that "thinks" they can scrape or sand them clean is kidding themselves, and if you can't get the wire terminated properly than why use Litz ehhh?

There's some techniques in the DIY forum about scraping with an exacto knife and one about sanding on a glass plate. All grossly sub par.

Cardas sells a mini solder pot but it's as expensive as a REAL solder pot. The other technique you can do is take a cheap soldering iron, remove the tip, clamp it upright, and use the tip well as a mini solder pot. Dangerous, but would work.

.

 

[IPodPJ]

Les,
So even in the single litz wire each strand is individually covered?? That would be a lot of work. Is there a way you could just melt it off with the soldering iron?

If they are all individually covered, I don't understand the benefit if each strand gets soldered to the same receptacle anyway. Is it to reduce EMI?

 

[IPodPJ]

Kyle @ RAM is going to do this for me.