[Paladin79]

Thanks. I was going for a "candy cane" look.
I highly doubt I could hear the difference if it were twisted "properly".

It is a nice look and I just listened to some test tones on HDTracks from 1k to 25k and I would be embarrassed to say how badly I do at high frequencies now. I call on younger friends to test many cables for me, I try to be realistic and objective.

Part of my undergrad education was with one of those colleges that end in institute of technology so it is hard to always find the beauty in some things science related. I talk to engineers all over the country on a daily basis so it is not always easy to step outside of that box. i try to answer questions in a way where the science makes sense to me, it is never my intent to criticize an individual or anything they built. It makes the most sense to me not to use different materials together and when completed I try to maintain the twists. What I really hate is going back and re-braiding a cable because it is not uniform, but I do. If I used silver and copper together, I would probably spend four or five times the amount of time on it. I am probably not that patient.

I like the sound of many amps I own but as Allan knows I do go for looks as well when I build or design.

 

[Paladin79]

This is what I had in mind for a headphone amp/dac cabinet. I will probably get a matching table for the turntable and move tube type amps to the top, but this is a start. Soon I start building interconnect cables, so that is DIY cable related. So far I have under $150 in cabinet and extra shelves. The good folks at Sauder were kind enough to sell me two extra shelves for $5.00 each, that sure beats trying to buy chalked chestnut.

Interconnects will be well shielded twisted pair cables by Belden, Canare and Mogami with Neutrik connectors. I have AC cords of various lengths. I will run pre-amp outs into two stereo speaker systems. Most likely I will mount blue neon lights inside the cabinet, the drawer holds headphone cables and extra interconnects. Back of cabinet wiring will not show a lot since the shelves are fairly deep.

 

[kingkikapu]

that's a lot of gear!

 

[Paladin79]

There is more but at least the shelf spacing is correct for my solid state equipment. My tube type amps are larger and I worry about ventilation so they will most likely go on top. I have also loaned out some equipment but it may not be returning if they buy it lol.

I have a ten outlet ac strip with extra filtering and protection that will go in the bottom of the cabinet so plenty of outlets.

 

[kingkikapu]

I hear you. My outlaw amps are 93lbs a piece and generate a lot of heat. Finding furniture that can support them and provide adequate ventilation is a must.

Your setup is looking great.

 

[Paladin79]

This is a cable I built for my dual amp, balanced setup. Center and last photo. Mini four pin male Neutrk XLR to dual male three pin XLR's. Mogami star quad cable, clear heat shrink tubing over each twisted pair.( To help maintain twists.) The amps used to be stacked so I needed something longer. I used internal red and black wires to signify the channels. Blue neon lights are installed but I may move them around a bit. This is the most logical setup for me right now, accessible power switch, then selector switch, and Dac on right hand side.

I also had to build some additional RCA interconnect cables. First photo...all cables in my system are now OFC. I labeled the direction of signal flow with waterproof labels I like. Since the cable is shielded, I use the shield, connected at source end.

 

[ostewart]

@Allanmarcus and @Paladin79 I figured it out I twisted the 2 copper wires together and heated them up slightly to retain the twisted shape. This way the copper cable retains slight bends when untwisted. I then wrapped the silver cable around the copper.

The upper copper section is a tiny bit different in colour to the bottom due to lightly heating the jacket, but it'll age and the copper will likely go green anyway due to not being litz. But it should be good for a while.

 

[Paladin79]

Nicely done!


Above are examples of the Neutrik Profi RCA connector. It takes me about ten minutes to build, label, and test a set of cables using Mogami star quad. I tend to have everything in place and make a loop in the cable so the connector shell does not fall off the cable as I wire the tip portion. The blue chuck (cable clamp) grabs the jacket as you install the back shell, I love this arrangement, you never have to worry about strain on your solder connections.

Later today i will put together a couple items for a headphone upgrade. 3.5 mm female jacks with attached litz wire; these will go to Viivo for his headphone rewire.

I am nearly done with wiring for my amp/dac setup. Eventually I will have a switched system where a person can listen to at least four different types of wire by switching between four strand litz, occ copper, ofc, and silver wire and select their favorite. The wires will not be visible and as exact in length and twists as i can make them. They will be switched from the same amp into the same headphones with the same music running in a loop. I am curious to see if anyone can hear much of a difference.

 

[ostewart]

@Paladin79 I have plenty of the normal neutrik RCA plugs to build up some cables

I'm still using the single core pro patch cable for RCA interconnects, haven't had any interference issues with them not being twisted pair (that I can hear anyway)

I'll be interested to hear if people can hear a difference between the cables too.

 

[Paladin79]

I use those as well and they are fine connectors. I believe someone asked the other day about high end connectors, not from boutique sites or some such and I mentioned these. It was a little hard to explain the clamping system so as I worked with some today I took a few photos.

Twisted pair is great shielding and more effective than a braid shield quite often. I happened to be using star quad since I like the Mogami OFC and my choices were, not use the shield, attach the shield to both grounds (the wrong thing to do since you build a ground loop), or attach it to the ground at the source end, thus my arrow indicators for signal flow. I am always hooking up test equipment as well as having lots of audio equipment present so I do not mind the extra shielding, for most home audio this is rarely needed.

I am fortunate to live in a college town with one of the finest music schools in the country so some of my guinea pigs (I mean that in the nicest possible way) will come from there. I may sell some headphone cables one day when I retire and rather than say, a cable sounds better or laud the silver plated whatever, I hope to merely say, with permission, that one person or another preferred cable X, your results may vary. Hopefully by then some of my testers would have moved on to respective orchestras and that in itself might add a bit of credibility. There is oftentimes some madness in my method.

 

[Paladin79]

This is a dual entry upgrade kit I put together for a gentleman on here. The 3.5 mm jacks are ready to use and I have marked the litz wire black and red so there is no doubt which wire is which. On the 3.5 mm plugs I have just wrapped or inserted the proper color wires into them so the recipient will see where the wires go when he builds his own cables. The connections are redundant, both tip and ring are tied together on the jacks as well as the plugs. Amphenol nickel plated extended tip 3.5 mm plugs and a 3.5 mm jack my employees have sent out in hundreds of builds so I trust it as well. All litz wire was tinned on each end in a solder pot so it is ready to go, jacks are soldered but not the sample wires on the plugs.

Also here are some of the cables I removed and replaced when wiring my audio cabinet. I believe Harry Chapin had a song by the same name, The Cats in the Cables.

 

[viivo]

Really appreciate the time and materials. Looking forward to starting the de-cheapification of these DT880s. I've never liked the appearance of the gray/silver Beyers - too plastic looking. I know they're on the lower end of headphones, but a good place to start and easy to mod.

Is it the ambient light, or are those really brass and brown in color? No preference either way of course, just thinking of color schemes for the earcups and like the brown and tan shades that would match those as pictured.

 

[Paladin79]

They are black and silver in color but a shiny black that might pick up other colors a bit. I am experimenting with Edison light bulbs in a steampunk headphone rack and they give off a yellow hue. I was working on building a protective cage around an edison light, 12 gauge solid copper I hand crafted to protect the bulb. I had to wire the patinated copper tubing and mount a fixture.Cord is a gold mesh that matches my copper work fairly well. Not easily photographed when lit but it is part of a steampunk crack amp endeavor that I keep adding parts to.

 

[Old_Snake]

Has anyone made an inline mic and play/pause control for the JH Siren Series (4 pin connectors)? JH has a 2 pin version https://jhaudio.com/p/smart-phone-mic-cable. Do you know if I can just replace the 2 pin connector with a 4 pin? I'm not really familiar with the wiring on both.

 

[Allanmarcus]

Has anyone made an inline mic and play/pause control for the JH Siren Series (4 pin connectors)? JH has a 2 pin version https://jhaudio.com/p/smart-phone-mic-cable. Do you know if I can just replace the 2 pin connector with a 4 pin? I'm not really familiar with the wiring on both.

From what I understand, the "extra" two wires per channel control the bass driver. So no, I don't think you can simply replace the tips without messing up the sound.