[kingkikapu]

Looks like you have a VIABLUE cable sleeve,I have used them on some of my builds they are pretty but stiff.

Only the green cable in the plastic ziploc is Viablue. The rest is MDPCX sleeving. Great stuff, a bit stiff yes, but the product is well above paracord in quality.

 

[Paladin79]

Are you talking about the copper stand that you made i like that one specially the way you put the patina on it. Iluvmusic

Yeah I generally use that but I have a couple other stands around for when I am using solid state amps and space is an issue.

 

[Paladin79]

These are some balanced cables I just made to go from the output of a Pono player into separate amps. Belden miniature microphone cable to Neutrik male XLR's, topped with a cotton/nylon mesh. Amphenol extended tip 3.5 mm connectors. I will be traveling over Xmas and did not want to drag along a full sized DAC along with amps, headphones, and various cables. I used adhesive lined red and black heat shrink tubing so the channel indicators do not move around during usage.

 

[Allanmarcus]

When the marketeers say “cloth-wrapped” cable, like massdrop is saying comes with the Elex headphones, what do you suppose that means?

 

[Paladin79]

I do believe there is nylon "cloth" so it is a little hard to say; I will have to check that out sometime. I noticed an issue where an add called an amp balanced when it was not but that was more the manufacturer's wording than Massdrops. In the case of these cables, they are interconnects so I just prettied them up a bit. I may be getting with some headfi folks in the DC area soon so no sense taking average looking cables.

Not a bad setup for something I can haul easily, testing bass with a little Warren Zevon. (Werewolves of London and Nighttime in the Switching Yard) Plus a dsd version of The Gold Bug and A Turn of a Friendly Card. I definitely like these amps.

I like the ease of building with XLR's, the 3.5 mm connectors required some grommet modifications to fit the cable but the operation was a success.

 

[kwatch]

I'm planning to build a pair of balanced cables from headphone amp to powered speakers using Neutrik NC3MXX-B 3 Pin Male and NC3FXX-B 3 Pin Female connector. What cable do you recommend? Thanks.

 

[Paladin79]

I'm planning to build a pair of balanced cables from headphone amp to powered speakers using Neutrik NC3MXX-B 3 Pin Male and NC3FXX-B 3 Pin Female connector. What cable do you recommend? Thanks.

I personally like Belden 1800F for such applications. There are many fine cables that are perfectly suited by Mogami and Canare as well but the 1800F is my first choice. Good choice on connectors by the way. If you want one cable with a split at each end, many star quad cables can work but those are more usable as amp and Dac interconnects.

In the 1800f you have a cable that can also be used for digital applications if you ever so desire. At 13 picofarads per foot it is a low capacitance cable that works wonderfully with analog signals.


Tom

 

[kwatch]

I personally like Belden 1800F for such applications. There are many fine cables that are perfectly suited by Mogami and Canare as well but the 1800F is my first choice. Good choice on connectors by the way. If you want one cable with a split at each end, many star quad cables can work but those are more usable as amp and Dac interconnects.

In the 1800f you have a cable that can also be used for digital applications if you ever so desire. At 13 picofarads per foot it is a low capacitance cable that works wonderfully with analog signals.


Tom

Belden 1800F has 3 wires plus a shield. Do I cut off the shield and use 3 wires?

 

[Paladin79]

You can just use 3 wires. 1 ground, 2 positive, 3 negative. Wire 1-1 etc.

 

[AnakChan]

Nothing fancy but just made a balanced XLR -> 4.4mm. The XLR female was just a Neutrik, and the 4.4mm side as an Effect Audio plug. I used the 0.6mm Oyaide Augline Pt+ PTFE solid core which cost a bomb - $110 for just 1m.

I botched up the 4.4mm so bad - hard to solder with a 0.6mm solid core too. I used my clamp to hold the plug as I soldered but as it was conductive everytime pulled out the multimeter to test each wire I soldered, it beeped across all poles. So I thought my solder bridged over the connections but I couldn't find it! I desoldered everything, cleaned up the connections and restarted numerous times. After awhile I got tired tested without the clamp and violà!! It was actually fine! Damn clamp!! Anyhow the soldering/desoldering made the whole connection so unprofessional in the end but I managed to salvage the plug.

 

[Paladin79]

The Neutrik is a great connector but I wish it was easier to find four pin 2.5 and 3.5 mm connectors with solder lugs. Soldering onto a cylinder separated by plastic is never easy and you are fortunate the small connector withstood multiple solder attempts. I would be willing to wager that any issues cropping up in the future originate at that end. Solid wire is not very flexible so hopefully you will not have to repeatedly plug the male end in and out very much. By using a metal clamp you can also run the risk of flattening the round TRRS portion of the plug so I hope all is well there.

 

[callumrd1]

I’m looking to built my first cable for my HD650s. I’d like to make it from copper wire in clear insulation to show off the copper. I’m being a bit ambutious and would like to try an eight strand braid into four strands per channel. Does anyone know where I could get some wire that would be suitable? I’m not very knowledgeable but would assume I’d want 28 or 30 awg.

 

[Paladin79]

There is plenty of it already braided coming out of China for as low as $10 for one meter. You can then split it and do a four wire braid on the headphone connector end if you want relatively quick and easy. The braid is pretty much perfect. All kinds of it on EBay right now, just search for 8 strand braid OCC copper.

I have sampled plenty of it and have had great results in my personal testing.

 

[Feilong4]

Anyone know whether this wire will be good for a dual entry headphone? I'm just looking to make a quick, easy, and supple cable.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/100ft-ELF-...-pure-OCC-copper-wire-28awg-BIN-/122888219259

 

[Paladin79]

It will not be very supple, that is solid wire. A quick and easy way to do it, IMHO, is to use 8 wire pre-stranded. If you indeed want plated wire, silver is a better conductor than gold...

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Braided-Te...412534?hash=item2a78afc8b6:g:d9AAAOSws6ZaRF9v

Something like this could be easily split to four strands per side, braided, and used for dual entry. This is a fairly long piece of wire but it is also eight strands compared to one. I consider this quick and easy because I can quickly braid four wires for each entry and use an ohmmeter and marking system to keep all of the wires straight. I am guessing a bit here but I can probably make the complete cable in a half hour to forty-five minutes starting with this wire. I can recall working on such a cable for Letmebefrank so he might be able to help with an estimate of time required.

I have talked about skin effect in here before and plating looks nice, can help keep down oxidation, but it has little effect on sound quality in audio wire at audible frequencies.