[Arty McGhee]

 
 
Tedious, Difficult and Fulfilling. The three words to describe cable making.
 
 
In the end it worked out. It's beautiful. There's connections running through the whole wire. There was immense pleasure and fulfillment when the cable was completed.
 
All in i just want to say, don't give up on DIY so early. It's difficult, it's tiring. It can get quite expensive too. But it's one of the greatest experiences I've ever had. I just did this on the carpet at home. No real workshop table or a room. I'm only 18 and studying very hard for my examinations and I decided to pick this up to relax. (It wasn't relaxing). Go ahead and get into DIY, you won't regret it.
 
 

nice work
keep it up
you can only get better at it

 

[Armaegis]

Nothing fancy, but it took a while to do.
 
finished cable roughly 30 feet each (started at ~35')
speakon(4) to bananas(4)
cable is a 4/16awg, opposing pairs twisted to form two conductors in each cable
lightly twist two cables together to get 4 conductors
 
Now those of you who've made longer cables, you know that when you're braiding/twisting/etc, sometimes the bottom gets tangled up with the opposite pattern of what you've done above. So you just gotta jiggle it a bit and let gravity untangle it, maybe run your fingers through it quickly, tada all fixed.
 
Ok, now try that with something 35 feet long... yeah, not easy. Technically not difficult, but it takes a looooong time because you have to inch the twists up across the entire length and/or undo the countertwists below. I found a sort of quicker way to do it which involved whipping both cables simultaneously to make a wave carry the twist up, but it's still very time consuming.
 
For those wondering, this is for a bi-amped PA setup. 2+/2- powers the bottoms and 1+/1- gets a pass through (via another speakon(2) cable) to the tops.

 

[Fail]

^^^^^^ Nice work. Doesn't have to be pretty as long as it gets the job done (not saying it looks "bad").

 

[AyeCee]

 
 
Tedious, Difficult and Fulfilling. The three words to describe cable making.
 
Hey all, been a long time lurker and finally went ahead to make my first ever headphone/earphone/iem cable.
Wires are 28 AWG from taobao (super cheap) connectors are from taobao too. Viablue plug is from Null Audio in Singapore. Heatshrink are all from various Sim Lim Tower shops.
 
It's a 8 core hybrid cable with copper and silver-plated copper. Beautiful stuff.
HeatShrink everything. From Y-splitter to stress reliefs, all are made from clear heatshrink with hot glue for adhesives.
 
Braiding at the start was intensely difficult especially when you lose focus. Cables go all over the place and their coiling effect makes it worse to work with. Perseverance pulled me through. 
 
I've only had 1 instance where i soldered connections and that was 5 years ago in Secondary 2 Design and Technology class.
First connector was a very good looking silver tube 2 pin. And i had to screw it up. Soldered it on for too long and the plastic warped and the pin changed positions. I knew they weren't going to work anymore so i switched to a second piece. This one was less good looking. Even worse, the covering of the connector could not fit my quad braid. So i just settled for heatshrink around the connector. Red for right, blue for left. 
 
In the end it worked out. It's beautiful. There's connections running through the whole wire. There was immense pleasure and fulfillment when the cable was completed.
 
All in i just want to say, don't give up on DIY so early. It's difficult, it's tiring. It can get quite expensive too. But it's one of the greatest experiences I've ever had. I just did this on the carpet at home. No real workshop table or a room. I'm only 18 and studying very hard for my examinations and I decided to pick this up to relax. (It wasn't relaxing). Go ahead and get into DIY, you won't regret it.
 
Anyways, this cable is a request from my friend. I told him i wanted to try to make even though i don't have any detachable cable iems. So these will be for his Westone 4 and I will be getting his impressions real soon.

Nice work man, good job! I literally just finished making my first cable too, I'll post some pictures in the morning (I, uhh, had to work into the night) when there's some natural light along with some details. But it was an experience to say the least!

 

[AyeCee]

This was my first attempt at a DIY cable, and am impressed with how it turned out. Everything went according to plan, until I wrongly assumed a hair drier would be hot for the heat-shrink. So I, uhh, improvised. I tried a match, but the flame was so dirty it discoloured the heat shrink. Then I tried a lighter, but the same thing happened. So I ended up using the barbecue. Worked a charm! Only little issue was when I was soldering the IEM connector, I was using a clamp to hold the connector still, and when the iron heated up the contact, that in turn heated up the plastic enough for the clamp to squish it a bit. But using some needle nose pliers I was able to re-squish it back to somewhat it's original shape. Overall, 9/10, would DIY again!
Here's some glam shots, enjoy!
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[esteboune]

  This was my first attempt at a DIY cable, and am impressed with how it turned out. Everything went according to plan, until I wrongly assumed a hair drier would be hot for the heat-shrink. So I, uhh, improvised. I tried a match, but the flame was so dirty it discoloured the heat shrink. Then I tried a lighter, but the same thing happened. So I ended up using the barbecue. Worked a charm! Only little issue was when I was soldering the IEM connector, I was using a clamp to hold the connector still, and when the iron heated up the contact, that in turn heated up the plastic enough for the clamp to squish it a bit. But using some needle nose pliers I was able to re-squish it back to somewhat it's original shape. Overall, 9/10, would DIY again!
Here's some glam shots, enjoy!
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

 
congrats!
 
it is a very nice cable.
 
what wire did you use?

 

[esteboune]

 
 
Tedious, Difficult and Fulfilling. The three words to describe cable making.
 
Hey all, been a long time lurker and finally went ahead to make my first ever headphone/earphone/iem cable.
Wires are 28 AWG from taobao (super cheap) connectors are from taobao too. Viablue plug is from Null Audio in Singapore. Heatshrink are all from various Sim Lim Tower shops.
 
It's a 8 core hybrid cable with copper and silver-plated copper. Beautiful stuff.
HeatShrink everything. From Y-splitter to stress reliefs, all are made from clear heatshrink with hot glue for adhesives.
 
Braiding at the start was intensely difficult especially when you lose focus. Cables go all over the place and their coiling effect makes it worse to work with. Perseverance pulled me through. 
 
I've only had 1 instance where i soldered connections and that was 5 years ago in Secondary 2 Design and Technology class.
First connector was a very good looking silver tube 2 pin. And i had to screw it up. Soldered it on for too long and the plastic warped and the pin changed positions. I knew they weren't going to work anymore so i switched to a second piece. This one was less good looking. Even worse, the covering of the connector could not fit my quad braid. So i just settled for heatshrink around the connector. Red for right, blue for left. 
 
In the end it worked out. It's beautiful. There's connections running through the whole wire. There was immense pleasure and fulfillment when the cable was completed.
 
All in i just want to say, don't give up on DIY so early. It's difficult, it's tiring. It can get quite expensive too. But it's one of the greatest experiences I've ever had. I just did this on the carpet at home. No real workshop table or a room. I'm only 18 and studying very hard for my examinations and I decided to pick this up to relax. (It wasn't relaxing). Go ahead and get into DIY, you won't regret it.
 
Anyways, this cable is a request from my friend. I told him i wanted to try to make even though i don't have any detachable cable iems. So these will be for his Westone 4 and I will be getting his impressions real soon.

 
Great job.
 
the Viable mini T6s is not an easy jack to solder.
Quite expensive moreover, so you do not want to spoil it!

 

[Raddiqal11]

Great job.

the Viable mini T6s is not an easy jack to solder.
Quite expensive moreover, so you do not want to spoil it!

Yeah it was! Very surprised when I opened it up and trying to identify the 3poles. The left tip lead is smaller than 1mm^2. But fortunately my dad is into these electrical stuff and I've watched him do a lot of soldering. He modifies his own cd players and amps.

He told me to tin the leads first so I did it carefully. Then after that 1touch of the soldering iron and voila! Didn't touch it after that.

Anyways if anybody was wondering. I used wbt 4% silver solder which I bought 1m of from taobao also. I didn't have any problems using it. Even as a first timer!

 

[esteboune]

what wire did you use?

 

[AyeCee]

   
congrats!
 
it is a very nice cable.
 
what wire did you use?

Thank you!
I didn't really do much research into to buy, and I was also restricted by my budget, being in Australia (the dollar is really bad here at the moment) and with shipping. 
I ended up buying 20ft of this. Shipping took just under 3 weeks to Australia. The wire is great (I don't have any other experience, other than stock westone cable). Was fairly easy to work with. Honestly I can't hear much of a difference between stock cable, maybe a bit more high end extension. But I only decided to make one because the stock cable's right angle connector is too flush, and doesn't fit with the case on my phone. Also, don't buy these connectors! It had black scratches on it when I opened the package. Doesn't really bother me though. 
 
Here are the photos uploaded to imgur, much better quality than the ones above. 

 

[WalterQ04]

e right, its with a K, kind of you, Regards

 

[Armaegis]

   So I, uhh, improvised. I tried a match, but the flame was so dirty it discoloured the heat shrink. Then I tried a lighter, but the same thing happened. So I ended up using the barbecue.
 
 

 
In a pinch, you can also use the soldering iron on the heat shrink. Just don't use the actual tip as solder can sometime stick. Lightly tapping with the barrel a few times should be enough.
 
It's certainly not the recommended method, but perhaps better than using a bbq...

 

[plasmo]

Hey guys, I have some awm 2725, it is a two core insulated wire and I was planing on joining together to make rca's to 3.5 Jack. I know nothing about the wire properties and wonder if there is any reason why it would not work?

 

[Arty McGhee]

   
In a pinch, you can also use the soldering iron on the heat shrink. Just don't use the actual tip as solder can sometime stick. Lightly tapping with the barrel a few times should be enough.
 
It's certainly not the recommended method, but perhaps better than using a bbq...

i use a small candle i think they call em tea lights
i steal 'em from the wife
 
hold it at a few inches away and it wont get sooty

 

[Shawn71]

  Thank you!
I didn't really do much research into to buy, and I was also restricted by my budget, being in Australia (the dollar is really bad here at the moment) and with shipping. 
I ended up buying 20ft of this. Shipping took just under 3 weeks to Australia. The wire is great (I don't have any other experience, other than stock westone cable). Was fairly easy to work with. Honestly I can't hear much of a difference between stock cable, maybe a bit more high end extension. But I only decided to make one because the stock cable's right angle connector is too flush, and doesn't fit with the case on my phone. Also, don't buy these connectors! It had black scratches on it when I opened the package. Doesn't really bother me though. 
 
Here are the photos uploaded to imgur, much better quality than the ones above. 

Simple and nicely built!....btw, what's the length you chose for the cable (standard is 1.2M/4ft)?