[ardgedee]

jewelry wire.... then some heat shrink over it. It'll allow you to bend the ear hooks once the cable is done and being use, and they stay that way.

I had good success using 3:1 heat shrink bent around a form, without wire.

It has a nice, gentle spring to it; I don't even need a yoke slider to help keep the wire stable. Which I like because I'm not so fond of yoke sliders.

I'll try to post pics tonight. The build is pretty ugly, actually, but I'm happy with it as a working proof of concept.

(as an aside: the mods have become a lot more tolerant of topic drift here than in most of the threads on the DIY forum, but MOTs arguing about products -- their own or anybody else's -- is probably not going to go over well.)

 

[cogsand gears]

Quote:

What do u guys use for the ear hooks? Thinking of building an IEM cable..

I never bothered with memory wire. I used a former made from a bit of wood with a load of pannel pins banged into it:

 
Then bent the IEM wires around it with a piece of clear shrink tube over the top, secured everything in place with more pannel pins, then shrunk it and left it in place for like 20 minutes to really cool down. It holds its shape really well. If it starts loosing shape you can always put it back on and re haet.
 
To be honest, I havent bothered with ear loops on the last 2 IEM cables as im now using more flexible wire

 

[ardgedee]

Quote:

I never bothered with memory wire. I used a former made from a bit of wood with a load of pannel pins banged into it:
 
Then bent the IEM wires around it with a piece of clear shrink tube over the top, secured everything in place with more pannel pins, then shrunk it and left it in place for like 20 minutes to really cool down. It holds its shape really well. If it starts loosing shape you can always put it back on and re haet.
 
To be honest, I havent bothered with ear loops on the last 2 IEM cables as im now using more flexible wire

 
Your earlier post about your ear form was what inspired mine:
  
 
I formed the shape by slipping the heat shrink over the wire, wrapping it around a bottle cap and tying it in place, and aiming a hair dryer at it. After it cooled, I removed it from the bottle cap. There was some additional shaping and hair dryering to get things to fit just so. The ear loops effectively work as clips, helping hold the IEMs in place (not like customs usually need much help). They look like they'd be irritating to wear, but they're not. I surprised myself, there.
 
Not my best-looking cable at all. Plier marks, uneven wrap, uneven bends, inconsistent and sloppy braiding... Works great, though, so I use it almost every day. I'm at work on another cable now, and I don't think I'll ever see a use for memory wire. A decent heat shrink wrap works perfectly well on its own if you do it right.

 

[Toxic Cables]

What are those IEM connectors you are using, are those from a stock cable.

 

[Toxic Cables]

Quote:

I'm reviewing a Toxic Cables ''Viper'' IEM cable at present. It doesn't have memory wire but the bare wire is already formed to a generic ear shape which is pretty much perfect and stays in place.

Hi Nigel, i use a little heat from a small butane heat gun to shape the wire, i think it works quite well.
Don't like using memory wire myself.

 

[Athur126]

Hmm... Ok. Thanks for the suggestions. I'll probaly go down and buy the lead wire that the aquarium shops sell and try that.

 

[ardgedee]

Quote:

What are those IEM connectors you are using, are those from a stock cable.

 
They're the Lunashops-style connectors. I got mine from tygamehk09 on Ebay, where they were a little cheaper.
 
The black heat-shrink extends all the way to the base of the connector (more or less), then I put a small band of colored heat-shrink on top of that, red or white for each channel.

 

[theledman]

wow ardgedee that looks great

 

[piotrus-g]

CAL! recabled with Canare in multifilament Rean regular plug

 

[LizardKing1]

Good job. Was it easy to get the multifilament through the rubberstrain reliefs on the cups? I had a hard time with that, but then again it helps make sure the wires don't get pulled out.

 

[WayTooCrazy]

Quote:

 
CAL! recabled with Canare in multifilament Rean regular plug

Good job!  Especially love the "Y" split.

 

[Pingupenguins]

Quote:

Good job. Was it easy to get the multifilament through the rubberstrain reliefs on the cups? I had a hard time with that, but then again it helps make sure the wires don't get pulled out.

 
It looks like he used adhesive heatshrink for the job. I personally was never able to fit a sleeved cable through the CAL's that I've worked on. Heatsrhink is the only option really. I also found out the CAL's are very sensitive to change. If that cable boot isn't sealed, you will get funny sounding CAL's.
 
Anyway, where'd you get the split Piotrus?

 

[Toxic Cables]

The Y split looks to be adhesive lined heatshrink.

 

[Pingupenguins]

Quote:

The Y split looks to be adhesive lined heatshrink.

 
 
It has a pinch in the middle, which is why I ask. Normally that won't happen.

 

[KimLaroux]

Quote:

 
 
It has a pinch in the middle, which is why I ask. Normally that won't happen.

 
I wondered about that too. My guess is he used a pair of long nose pliers and crimped the heat shrink down while it was hot. Very nice job indeed.