[kingoftown1]

Yeah, I chickened out of doing all 24awg silver/gold because of the cost. I'm using the "multiple gauges is better" coping mechanism to get by for now.

 

[paul_uk_81]

I made a PW Audio 1960s inspired cable a couple of years ago. Today I reterminated it to use with my Expanse. Reasonably happy with how it came out. Tomorrow I'll tidy up and add a bit of heat shrink to mark the left/right sides but happy with the result!

The Pentaconn plug feels a bit cheap, I may swap that for a Furutech Rhodium in future.

 

[kingoftown1]

Progress! I'm calling it the the poor man's Ikigai Kinzan (relatively). As it is, the 4 bundles barely fit into the connectors so the plan was changed from braid to twist. Each of the 4 runs is still comprised of 4 braided wires. Just need to terminate the other cable and put on some finishing touches.

@paul_uk_81 is your cable Duelund wire? Would love to know more

 

[HiGHFLYiN9]

Very nice! Are you going to put a grounding spade on the external wire?

Paul's cable looks like it could be waxed cotton, but it's a little hard to tell. Waxed cotton wire was pretty common inside amplifiers in the 60s, it's a nice look.

Regarding the Furutech Pentaconn, I recommend sanding/scoring the rhodium where you'll be soldering otherwise it's tough to get a solid connection. It also doesn't really have an adequate strain relief, so you have to put adhesive heatshrink over the nice looking shell Still it's the best one out there.

 

[paul_uk_81]

@kingoftown1 yours looks great. I used some Cardas Clear Light cable (I extracted the wires you see from inside the larger shielded part and then braided together).

@HiGHFLYiN9 thanks for the tip on the connector. I crimped the strain on this one around some heatshrink on the inside but may add a little more around the outside tomorrow to try and help more.

I’m more worried about the 4-pin headphone connector end- that definitely doesn’t seem to have enough strain relief.

 

[kingoftown1]

@paul_uk_81 awesome. I bet that sounds great too.
@HiGHFLYiN9 the plan is to attach a mini female banana, use a bit of heatshrink, then stitch a narrow leather strip to keep the external ground affixed to the body of the cable. Once everything's broken in, I'd like to try a couple different things with it:

-A ground box/dongle like below (except in all black, of course). People in the diy ground box thread have reported good results with ground boxes on interconnects.

-A slide on shield. Initial impressions leave me feeling like I won't need to go down this route. I also don't want to cover up the cable, but it's nice to have the option to be able to A/B if desired. Besides a traditional tinned copper braid, I'm also curious about the possibility of using graphite-infused PTFE + drain wire as a form of shielding. I've been told Flexo Anti-Stat is a poor choice for interconnects (I use it on all my AC & DC cables), but it could be fun to try that + drain wire as well.

 

[HiGHFLYiN9]

I seem to recall those 4 pin connectors come with a collet that you crimp around the cable, then a set screw that you tighten on it. I have the white paper on the part on my other computer, will upload it tomorrow if that can help at all. The Furutech crimp seems like an afterthought to me, it can't grip the cable adequately unless it is very small in circumference. They made it small so it fits in the barrel without being crimped, and... I feel like it might as well be pointless.

Very interesting on the grounding mechanism King of Town, can you refer me to the grounding box thread? I've seen a ton of various implementations and have been experimenting with my own. Interestingly it carries over to cars, as with poorly grounded vehicles, setting up a grounding scheme could net several extra horsepower. You may want to try playing with ferrite too, it's low cost and easy to incorporate on cables. Ferrite can help reduce EMI/RFI interference. If you send a signal through a ferrite core it also acts as something that slightly warms the sound.

Glad to see experimentation is alive and well in a 19 year old thread

 

[kingoftown1]

DIY ground box thread - lots of interesting tweaks in general here, with a few people sharing their impressions.
There's also some decent ground box recipes/materials recommendations floating around on Audiogon.

 

[paul_uk_81]

Fresh from the Expanse cable I made a few days ago, I made some smaller interconnects with some leftover Cardas Clear Light; one 4.4mm and one 3.5mm to use with my Romi BX2 and various sources.

I used the Furutech connectors this time which definitely feel more premium (than the Pentaconn I had before) but weren’t much fun soldering to. Even with sanding and some flux it was rough, but, they look nice.

 

[wirewiggler]

Both of my amps are about 10’ from my listening chair, what is the best wire for making an extension? Does anyone sell bulk copper litze braided cable?
Bill

 

[kingoftown1]

Finally got around to putting the finishing touches on these: DIY ground box with a Duelund silver/cotton lead, mini banana connectors and a Redwing leather band to secure the ground on the cable side.

Spoiler: Construction pics

4 runs of 4 strand braids per cable, CU-AG & AG-GD

sleeved in cotton:

then wrapped in PTFE tape

then the final Flexo Noise Reduction sleeve

 

[kingoftown1]

Both of my amps are about 10’ from my listening chair, what is the best wire for making an extension? Does anyone sell bulk copper litze braided cable?
Bill

Take a look at Audiophonics & Hificollective

 

[xtiva]

Just made one for my Hifiman Susvara using 6N Pure Silver with Furutech FT-735-SM 3.5mm connector with AECO AX4-1611R XLR 4 pin connector

 

[musicinmymind]

Just made one for my Hifiman Susvara using 6N Pure Silver with Furutech FT-735-SM 3.5mm connector with AECO AX4-1611R XLR 4 pin connector

From where did you source 6N Pure Silver?

 

[xtiva]

From where did you source 6N Pure Silver?

got this from Aliexpress

https://vi.aliexpress.com/item/1005...t_main.18.4c3c1802BUNYK0&gatewayAdapt=glo2vnm

Thanks.