[Allanmarcus]

I'm doing a 8 braid of twisted pairs as that's what the norne draug uses (I think. From the photo below it seem to indicate that's the method being used).

I'm doing the draug braid mostly because it looks cool. A straight 8 round braid would yield the best eddy current reduction, but cool is cool amiright?

You don't want to use a Kumihimo disc for that cable. 1) I don't think it would work as the braided part of the cable is too think. 2) Kumihimo braided are very tight, which you will not be able to do with that wire.

For 8 wires just braid by hand.

 

[Paladin79]

I'm doing a 8 braid of twisted pairs as that's what the norne draug uses (I think. From the photo below it seem to indicate that's the method being used).

I'm doing the draug braid mostly because it looks cool. A straight 8 round braid would yield the best eddy current reduction, but cool is cool amiright?

That does indeed look like 8 twisted pair and becomes more obvious once it is down to four twisted pair. Perhaps twisted pair is used in headphone cables at times?

It looks like Norne does sell silver plated copper litz wire but it is 23 awg. I will grab some for testing but I was trying to keep all conditions as equal as possible, most other wire I have is 24 awg but that is probably not enough difference to matter much. It would conduct slightly better. It does have a cotton center core so maybe that bumps up the gauge a bit.

I do have some of that wire on the way, something that I can easily do in my test setup is to put in three groups of the same wire like ofc, and one test wire like the silver plated copper litz and see what kind of results I get. Kingkikapu at some point I will send you a spreadsheet with the results of my testing.

 

[kingkikapu]

You should also pick up some neotech AgAu 24awg litz wire for your testing. Only 12.20$/ft at parts connexion

 

[kingkikapu]

*only*

 

[Paladin79]

I will most likely grab that as well. I know the setup I will build but I need to involve other cable as little as possible. The last thing I would want to do is have five feet of really expensive wire going into five feet of something of lesser quality. The gold, silver might be what I could use as a constant or even the silver plated copper litz.

I do believe in the past there were some issues on this site about testing or double blind testing so I might send my results privately but I doubt I will post the results. The last thing I would want to do is offend someone who paid a high dollar amount for a specific wire or offend any seller.

I should also add that I hope some of my testers do hear a difference between the pricier cable and less expensive OFC or whatever. One day if I do sell such cables, there is just no money to be made on OFC, I get some for ten cents a foot or less and generally just give it to folks starting out building cables.

 

[kingkikapu]

Honestly I don’t expect much difference in the double blind and I won’t be pissed if coat hangers work just fine even though I’ve plopped more than a bit in this hobby. I’d still buy a good transducer or music over wire any day. I’m just at the point where wire is the next thing to tick off.

Plus it’s fun building stuff and I don’t like waiting months for someone to build me a cable.

Which reminds me I need to finish my pc cables on my water cooled rig. Now those are annoying.

 

[Allanmarcus]

I will most likely grab that as well. I know the setup I will build but I need to involve other cable as little as possible. The last thing I would want to do is have five feet of really expensive wire going into five feet of something of lesser quality. The gold, silver might be what I could use as a constant or even the silver plated copper litz.

I do believe in the past there were some issues on this site about testing or double blind testing so I might send my results privately but I doubt I will post the results. The last thing I would want to do is offend someone who paid a high dollar amount for a specific wire or offend any seller.

I should also add that I hope some of my testers do hear a difference between the pricier cable and less expensive OFC or whatever. One day if I do sell such cables, there is just no money to be made on OFC, I get some for ten cents a foot or less and generally just give it to folks starting out building cables.

It's ok to post non-scientific "impressions" of DIY results here. We just know they mean crap since they weren't, er, you know, scientific Although it does appear you are working on trying to make some sort of moderately blind testing possible. As long as you, and us, take the result with a grain of salt, we should be OK. Hell, you might have the measuring equipment to show some sort of difference between the "high end" cable and mogami/belden cable (assuming there is a difference)

Everyone I know that has purchased expensive cables, says they are wonderful! You won't offend anyone here, as the most expensive stuff we tend to build is only $12.20 a foot. Heck, even at $12.20/ft, a 6 foot, 4 strand headphone cable would only be $293, plus $22 for a furutech TRS 1/4", plus $16 for the connectors (for an HD6xx). Why that's well under $350! heh heh - many Audiophools (auto-correct error) spend hundreds, if not thousands more! we save soooo much with DIY

 

[Paladin79]

Honestly I don’t expect much difference in the double blind and I won’t be pissed if coat hangers work just fine even though I’ve plopped more than a bit in this hobby. I’d still buy a good transducer or music over wire any day. I’m just at the point where wire is the next thing to tick off.

Plus it’s fun building stuff and I don’t like waiting months for someone to build me a cable.

Which reminds me I need to finish my pc cables on my water cooled rig. Now those are annoying.

I doubt anyone will consistently hear much difference and I certainly understand about equipment and the recording quality as do you.

Allan as a member of the trade I am not allowed to disparage anyone's product even though I am tempted to at times. I have had discussions with moderators, and if I err, I try to err toward playing it safe.

I do have a shop full of equipment but I am more interested to see if say a trained musician or a recording engineer or a friend who teaches trumpet and has performed with symphonies in three countries can say a specific cable sounds better, then can blindly pick that same cable again and again. I am also curious when buying cable claiming to be 7n occ out of china, if it is even occ and then compare it with something certified out of Japan. Are you as well off with either if only one person in a thousand can consistently pick one over the other?

 

[kingkikapu]

I won’t even be A/Bing my cables when I’m done due to confirmation bias as Allan correctly stated. Unless I can get my gf to run a double blind for me then there’s not much point.

But then I would have to explain what I’ve been up to. Like THAT is a conversation I want to have.

 

[Whitigir]

Lol, the HD800/S/820 uses the same connectors and these are needle sizes. Fit up to 23awg....this is so sad. Even if tried to fit a little larger 21awg, the pins is still the bottleneck which is 23awg....roflmao

 

[Paladin79]

i recently soldered some about that size but had to use 26 awg. Do they claim it works with 23 awg?

 

[Whitigir]

i recently soldered some that size but had to use 26 awg. Do they claim it works with 23 awg?

No, I tried to fit 23awg, and it barely fit as in not slotted through but fit on the opening just fine. I believe 26awg is max if u want to slot it deep inside the opening pin

 

[Paladin79]

No, I tried to fit 23awg, and it barely fit as in not slotted through but fit on the opening just fine. I believe 26awg is max if u want to slot it deep inside the opening pin

I see. Luckily I have miniature irons and a good magnifying lamp but I still dislike working with those.

 

[Whitigir]

I see. Luckily I have miniature irons and a good magnifying lamp but I still dislike working with those.

Absolutely, but then, what would be the point to fit anything larger than 23awg anyway ? The connecting pins are 23awg solid sizes....so crazy

 

[Paladin79]

I may start to buy headphones based on the input jacks used. JK

Getting back to my previous conversation I do have a couple types of cable on the way from Norrne audio and Trevor's communications have been excellent and he believes in his products.

I am always open to suggestions on things to test and eventually I will settle on a personal favorite wire no doubt.

And I meant to comment earlier about Kingkick and his gf, my wife is traveling for a couple weeks and I will have all kinds of new gadgets before she returns but she stopped paying attention to electronics many years ago. If something happened to me, my son would have to come in from DC just to explain to her what I have downstairs and which voice command to use for the lights and such.