DIY Cable Questions and Comments Thread

[Canadian411]

Ok about to plunge into DIY cabling for my HD600 and here is my shopping cart. I'm sure its missing a few things, both things i'm aware and not aware of.


- 30 ft of Mogami 2893 Cable:
http://www.redco.com/Mogami-W2893.html


- Neutrik NP3RX-B:
http://www.redco.com/Neutrik-NP3RX-B.html

- Cardas HPSC connectors:
http://www.partsconnexion.com/CARDAS-71677.html

- 100ft of 550 Paracord: 
http://www.wildbillwholesale.com/pa1.html


- Y splitter???

(I need help here)


- Heat shrink???

(Also could use some help with this one)

Are those all the parts I need? I do have soldering tools left over from when I built a bottlehead crack. Any help regarding the process will be much appreciated!

I boight exact same cables and paracord.
And I don't really like paracord.

Get tecflex 1/4 and 1/8 from redco.
Mine is coming.

 

[jchandler3]

  Ok about to plunge into DIY cabling for my HD600 and here is my shopping cart. I'm sure its missing a few things, both things i'm aware and not aware of.

- 30 ft of Mogami 2893 Cable:
http://www.redco.com/Mogami-W2893.html

- Neutrik NP3RX-B:
http://www.redco.com/Neutrik-NP3RX-B.html
 
- Cardas HPSC connectors:
http://www.partsconnexion.com/CARDAS-71677.html
 
- 100ft of 550 Paracord: 
http://www.wildbillwholesale.com/pa1.html

- Y splitter???
(I need help here)

- Heat shrink???
(Also could use some help with this one)
 
Are those all the parts I need? I do have soldering tools left over from when I built a bottlehead crack. Any help regarding the process will be much appreciated!

 
I'll be curious as to what you do about a Y splitter. I've been wondering the same thing myself. 
 
If you just need black heat shrink, I really like TechFlex's. It's great quality and is 3:1. 
 
And a word of caution on the Neutrik connector: The boot that it comes with has a very tight tolerance, so watch your diameter with cable+paracord. Neutrik sells a larger boot (BPX-L).

 

[junkimchi]

Wait wait wait. Sanity check: why do you need 30 feet of Mogami cable? Just making sure you know W2893 is a quad cable already, there's 4 conductors inside the outer sheathe.

I plan to make multiple cables lol

As of right now I'm the most confused about what to do with the Y-splitter area. The rest seems pretty straight forward.

I plan to take the rubbershielding off before putting paracord around it, as it seems from my research this is either necessary or advised so that the wire fits through the paracord easily. 

 

[Senpai3330]

I plan to make multiple cables lol


As of right now I'm the most confused about what to do with the Y-splitter area. The rest seems pretty straight forward.


I plan to take the rubbershielding off before putting paracord around it, as it seems from my research this is either necessary or advised so that the wire fits through the paracord easily. 

Gotcha, also added some links and suggestions to my last post, not sure if you saw.

 

[Senpai3330]

Sorry, bit of a repost of my question but the DIY forum mainpage is a bit dead and I need an answer fast:

There are a few cables out on the market right now like the Effect Audio Thor (pictured) that are using individual nylon/cloth sleeving for each conductor in the braid instead of just one protective covering over the entire braid. I absolutely love the aesthetic and want to recreate it on a few of my own cables.



I'm not really sure how thin of a sleeving I should use and where to purchase it. I'll be reusing some nice 26 AWG wire which is less than 1 mm in diameter even with insulation. The thinnest sleeving in the most appropriate length I could find was this listing for 3/32" techflex. Any thoughts/suggestions?

 

[MrEleventy]

A little costly but, here is an option for DIY. Others have made their own with a drill/drill press or just fashion one out of headshrink. I've had a HD600 cable that was made that way, worked great.

 

[Kamakahah]

Believe it or not, we have our own Y split thread. I recommend browsing it. Probably more options towards the end.
http://www.head-fi.org/t/537117/the-y-split-thread

 

[Lohb]

Wait wait wait. Sanity check: why do you need 30 feet of Mogami cable? Just making sure you know W2893 is a quad cable already, there's 4 conductors inside the outer sheathe.

And yep you'll need some heatshrink (I recommend buying a variety pack for ~$9 off amazon so you'll have any size you need in the future).

For the y-split some people just use heatshrink. There are some snap-on y-splits you can buy like this or this. My personal method is doing the split inside of a 3.5 mm jack housing and sealing it with hot glue.

Heatshrink for W2893 mostly for aesthetics or to re-inforce the cable ?

 

[Kamakahah]

Can be both. Doesn't do much reinforcement, but some. It's partially a functional issue. You might need some for a Y split, to cover certain connectors, to cover up sloppy work, channel identification, etc.

It has many uses, but it isn't necessary in every build. It's just cheap and easily resolves a number of potential problems.

 

[TrollDragon]

It's also unappealing and should not be seen IMHO.

 

[Lohb]

It's also unappealing and should not be seen IMHO.

You mean multi-color cables should be hidden under shrink ?

 

[TrollDragon]

  You mean multi-color cables should be hidden under shrink ?

Nope, the heat shrink should be under connector shells out of sight, if you cant get rid of it totally then at least use clear.
Multi-coloured cables should be sleeved in something, when I first saw the mogami white / blue wire used I though someone was actually using a Cat5 cable for headphones.

 
 
Also the best Y split, is one like this...

 

[65535]

There isn't a problem with colorful cables, all too often heat shrink is used as a cop-out for properly fitted parts or as a substitution for a part.  My personal opinion is heat shrink is good for insulation wire, adding thickness for clamping, and to add pull on strength in the case of adhesive lined. 
 
All too often I see expensive cables that use heat shrink like it makes the cables look nice, it does not. High quality properly assembled parts should not need heat shrink to function, I never use it other than as a cover for hand twisted cable and when hidden.

 

[Lohb]

Sorry, bit of a repost of my question but the DIY forum mainpage is a bit dead and I need an answer fast:

There are a few cables out on the market right now like the Effect Audio Thor (pictured) that are using individual nylon/cloth sleeving for each conductor in the braid instead of just one protective covering over the entire braid. I absolutely love the aesthetic and want to recreate it on a few of my own cables.



I'm not really sure how thin of a sleeving I should use and where to purchase it. I'll be reusing some nice 26 AWG wire which is less than 1 mm in diameter even with insulation. The thinnest sleeving in the most appropriate length I could find was this listing for 3/32" techflex. Any thoughts/suggestions?

Nice, I saw stuff like this with huge black cotton sleeving on each cable line vs the braid on some LCD-XC cables....looked great but black cotton vs nylon not sure it is a good material....white cotton sleeving like I saw the other day, now that is not looking long-term.
 
Just got some IRIS M/F plugs yesterday to replace  all my 4-XLR "lead" M/F pendulums. Not as bomb-proof, but easier to deal with for me....but maybe not looking long-term

 

[Kamakahah]

I think cable companies do it mostly for branding.