DIY Cable Gallery!!
Aug 22, 2011 at 6:33 PM Post #7,276 of 16,302
If I'm gonna wire a balanced LCD-2 cable - is there any reason to do 8 wire over 4?  obviously 8 wire would give every pin its own wire, as opposed to shorting 2 together on each side.  Is this a purely asthetic choice or is there some reason to do one over the other.
 
note i dont have a balanced source.  the terminiation of my lcd2 will be 4 pin mini xlr, with an adaptor for the RSA balanced plug.
I will be using this for an sr71b fed from an ipod/lod.
 
thanks
 
Aug 22, 2011 at 6:37 PM Post #7,277 of 16,302
Aren't you worried about crosstalk and having an unshielded cable? If it was balanced, none of this would matter, but you stand getting more noise than benefits from a recable, 
 
You could do an 8 wire braid and use 4 wires as drains (psuedo shields) and the other 4 for signals. But be careful, depending on the size of the 8 wires you use, you may have a hard time terminating everything.
 
Aug 22, 2011 at 7:39 PM Post #7,278 of 16,302


Quote:
Aren't you worried about crosstalk and having an unshielded cable? If it was balanced, none of this would matter, but you stand getting more noise than benefits from a recable, 
 
You could do an 8 wire braid and use 4 wires as drains (psuedo shields) and the other 4 for signals. But be careful, depending on the size of the 8 wires you use, you may have a hard time terminating everything.



 
i'm not very informed about that kind of stuff- i'd love to learn
i dont know what cross talk is.
arent most braided cables considered unshielded? like all of ALO's? 
if it was balanced none of this would matter - if what was balanced? - you mean if my source all the way to the headphones? its my understanding that whether I do 8 or 4 wires, i can still wire the cable as balanced.  With the sr71b balanced port i will at least have it "balanced"  in that way.
what is using wires as drains?
 
the wire thickness isnt going to be an issue.
 
thanks
 
 
 
Aug 22, 2011 at 8:18 PM Post #7,279 of 16,302
You don't need 8 wires to make a fully balanced LCD2 cable as the LCD2's only use two pins on the mini-xlr (in essence) for each channel (left/right) because you bridged some pins. Four is absolutely adequate, especially when you take into context most balanced headphone amps terminate with a 4 pin XLR (with hot and cold pins for each channel) or dual 3 pin XLR (with pin one unused on each XLR). You may get crosstalk if you use 8 wires, but again, YMMV IMO etc (don't quote me on this).

EDIT: You cannot even use the shield on typical mic cables as a 4 pin XLR provides no provision for grounding the shield. There is a grounding tab that attaches to the body of the XLR connector, but you are not supposed to use that, and I doubt any amp maker has that lug actually hooked up to any ground on the circuit. Unless you were reterminating with dual 3 pin XLR connectors, shielding won't help at all because you can't even connect it. 4 pin XLR's were not made for this purpose in mind.

Brendan
 
Aug 22, 2011 at 9:13 PM Post #7,280 of 16,302


Quote:
 
i'm not very informed about that kind of stuff- i'd love to learn
i dont know what cross talk is.
arent most braided cables considered unshielded? like all of ALO's? 
if it was balanced none of this would matter - if what was balanced? - you mean if my source all the way to the headphones? its my understanding that whether I do 8 or 4 wires, i can still wire the cable as balanced.  With the sr71b balanced port i will at least have it "balanced"  in that way.
what is using wires as drains?
 
the wire thickness isnt going to be an issue.
 
thanks
 
 



As CyberSpider points out 4 is adequate for a cable (balanced or otherwise), but the issue is that if you dont have a balanced set up (in other words you're using a single ended amp, I would worry about cross talk and other noise). 
 
Cross talk is just having one channel influence the other so you hear a little bit of "crossover" between the channels. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, and in some cases I enjoy it, reason why I liked the headroom amps with built in crossfeed and the Meier Crossfeed filter (forgot the name). 
 
While it is true that most cable companies sell unshielded cables, it doesn't exactly mean its the best thing for you. Id like to think that most of them give the same advice to their customers, its ok not to wear protection when you're balanced, but otherwise you may want to stop off at the pharmacy and suit up.
 
And actually I made a mistake, I didn't catch that you were using an SR71B, I forgot that there was a slew of balanced portable amps that came out about a year ago around the time I left the portable scene. Yeah if you're using the SR71B, don't worry about the crosstalk or noise issue, it shouldn't bother you. As CyberSpider pointed out, 4 is more than good, no need for 8 wire unless you wanna do some crazy braiding scheme. I definitely agree that 4 is your best bet. 
 
 
Aug 22, 2011 at 9:14 PM Post #7,281 of 16,302
thanks for the info.. so 4 wires is fine and shielding is not an issue.. GREAT!!
ALO using 8 wires is just for show/price then? or they maybe have some idea that its better for some reason?
 
 
 
Aug 22, 2011 at 9:31 PM Post #7,282 of 16,302


Quote:
thanks for the info.. so 4 wires is fine and shielding is not an issue.. GREAT!!
ALO using 8 wires is just for show/price then? or they maybe have some idea that its better for some reason?
 
 


Unless I can see how everything's connected, I'm not sure.  But as long as you go balanced, a lot of that shouldn't matter in your case. And as far as for show goes, I have to admit their 8wire cables are hot... especially with their newest copper wire W/FEP jacket. That's a thing of beauty.
 
 
Aug 22, 2011 at 9:48 PM Post #7,283 of 16,302
yeah.. for me cables are mostly about style and the fun of building them. I have never gotten into the technical side, or the "does one sound different form the other" stuff. 
 
I gotta say though, if this cable turns out like i want it to its gonna look SWEEET! I still have a few different ideas though.. i may have to make more than one 
very_evil_smiley.gif

 
cant wait to get started.
 
Aug 23, 2011 at 12:22 AM Post #7,284 of 16,302
Basic female 4 pin XLR to dual female 3 pin XLR IC. Used a spare Switchcraft barrel this time, the cable was too big for the REAN barrel I normally use haha.

r0025880.jpg


r0025877.jpg


Always wondered why the shade of red Neutrik uses never seem to look the same in real life, their sample pictures looked much more vibrant than the actual dark shade.

Brendan
 
Aug 23, 2011 at 2:15 AM Post #7,285 of 16,302
RSA female to 1/8" I made tonight... I dont recommend making this cable this way.. It was a real (expletive deleted) getting that rsa into that switchraft shaft.
I wasnt able to make it  absolutely perfect which bugs me too, but hey not bad overall.  Its certainly not gonna fall apart in this lifetime.  :wink:
 
the colors are all wonky - the cable is actually blue, and the shrink is purple.. i would say the camera messed up but i think it was operator error...
if you zoom the pic you can see the translucency in the wire sleeve.. pretty neat.  EDIT: second photo replaced with better color pic.
 

 
 
 

 
Aug 23, 2011 at 2:25 AM Post #7,286 of 16,302


Quote:
RSA female to 1/8" I made tonight... I dont recommend making this cable this way.. It was a real (expletive deleted) getting that rsa into that switchraft shaft.
I wasnt able to make it  absolutely perfect which bugs me too, but hey not bad overall.  Its certainly not gonna fall apart in this lifetime.  :wink:
 
the colors are all wonky - the cable is actually blue, and the shrink is purple.. i would say the camera messed up but i think it was operator error...
if you zoom the pic you can see the translucency in the wire sleeve.. pretty neat.


Nice colors, reminds me of some Laffy Taffy.
 
 
Aug 23, 2011 at 2:47 AM Post #7,287 of 16,302
^ better color photo added.
 
nice one cyberspyder!  Some of the cables on here could double as numbchucks or bolos with those big ol connectors!
what kinda wire ya got under there?
 
Aug 23, 2011 at 9:29 AM Post #7,288 of 16,302
99% of the time I use some variant of Quad cable, either from Mogami, Gotham or Canare. This is with Mogami mini-quad since the Neutrik boots will need to be modified for regular quad plus sleeving because it's way to thick (I'm already pushing the limits).

Brendan
 
Aug 24, 2011 at 1:11 AM Post #7,289 of 16,302
in my incessant quest to find the perfect cotton tubing.. i.e smallest diameter possible, in a variety of colors so i dont have to dye it.. I have stumbled upon what is at least some interesting products, and what I hope turns out to be an major payload of cotton tubing.
 
link 1: interesting tubing for cheap - lots of nylon filament, rubber tubing.. and more weird stuff..
http://www.beadfx.com/catalogue/cord.php
 
Link 2:  I have emailed this company asking if their various cotton cords are hollow.. if so.. HOLY EFFING ***** would that be awesome!  at least from my perspective... b/c they have lots of colors and very small diameters which means individually sleeving wires, and litz braiding them while mainting a very small overall diameter...which looks awesome! 
https://www.btoucan.com/index.php?p=catalog&mode=catalog&parent=11&mid=0&search_in=all&search_str=&pg=2
 
both of these places have CHEAP prices! yay!!!
 
Aug 24, 2011 at 1:19 AM Post #7,290 of 16,302
Great find, sir!  Thanks!  Do let us know if they tell you that the btoucan cotton is hollow.
 
Page 1 of that btoucan link shows braided cotton, then the subsequent pages show waxed cotton.  Will the waxing reduce flexibility/elasticity?
 

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