DIY Cable Questions and Comments Thread

[Paladin79]

Wow very nice work Jamie!

The cotton mesh I have on the way is pretty tiny so it will not allow for too many color changes. i ordered 1 mm and 1.5 mm.

I am pretty old school on the vane design, I was taught by a gentleman who is purported to have made the arrows in the movie Deliverance so no curly vanes here lol.

Good luck with the tiny pins on those connectors, if you have to use 26 awg then litz wire might be a good choice for you or maybe use some Mogami star quad with 26 awg wires. If I can help in any way as you start using those just let me know and I will offer what advice I can. I get kind of bored with the electronics so it is fun to play around with new methods. Here is some of my work with patinating copper..

 

[JamieMcC]

Very nice really like the blue patter-nation I enjoyed following your posts on the Crack bb and BHF

 

[Paladin79]

I keep trying different cables with the high impedance headphones on the Crack, once I plugged 650's into it I have been very happy with the results.


. One day I will get some HD 800's but I have too many irons in the fire right now. I am curious to see how Litz wire works with those, I saw some today that had 1600 strands at 38 awg but that must be fairly large overall wire gauge lol. I would definitely use a solder pot with that and probably leave the wire dunked in there for a bit just to insure removing all the insulation from the individual wires

I am currently designing a cabinet to hold several amps and pieces of audio equipment. Quartered oak to go with my steampunk design. Edison lights will be involved as well as brass and copper most likely.

 

[HiGHFLYiN9]

Ah Paladin I forgot you had that awesomely patina'd BH Crack. It's definitely the best finish I've seen on a copper plate so far.

I'm looking for Canadian suppliers that sell 2.5mm 4pole TRRS Balanced 16 Core OCC Silver Mixed Headphone Cable For Sennheiser HD800 HD800s as found here. http://www.lunashops.com/goods.php?id=5842 Or is there a Canadian list here that I have missed?

It's been mentioned a few times here on this thread that you can't really validate the quality of metal you are receiving from overseas, so I doubt anyone is selling something like that locally. If you'd like a good supplier of DIY audio parts in Canada, check out auDIYo.com ... also Partsconnexion and Takefiveaudio.

 

[Terry Newton]

It's been mentioned a few times here on this thread that you can't really validate the quality of metal you are receiving from overseas, so I doubt anyone is selling something like that locally. If you'd like a good supplier of DIY audio parts in Canada, check out auDIYo.com ... also Partsconnexion and Takefiveaudio.

Thank you.

 

[Paladin79]

Ah Paladin I forgot you had that awesomely patina'd BH Crack. It's definitely the best finish I've seen on a copper plate so far.

Thanks Highflyin, if you ever want to learn the process I will give you a hand with it, outside of this thread since it is off topic. I achieved a lighter blue on this amp but prefer the darker blues and green effect.

At times there are some decent connectors that come in from overseas, some of the major companies have some things built there but to their strict guidelines. I once looked for american made connectors and the choices were pretty slim if you want the factory to be here. Some of the Belden cable i use is still made in northern Indiana and I got used to using it after talking to the engineering dept. at a local university. Things like Belden 1505A are high quality and can be used for both digital and analog applications.

 

[kwatch]

How do I thin out the shield of Belden 1505F in order to solder?

 

[Paladin79]

You twist it together, there is so much braid there that it should not matter much if you cut away about a third of it. I would take more of the black jacket off since you will be removing some of that white dielectric to get to the center conductor. I am looking around for photos, and I will post a couple when time allows.

You want to leave yourself plenty of room between the braid and center conductor, then you can trim either down a bit as needed. I generally add some solder to the braid itself to make sure the tiny strands stay in place. I did this one in a hurry as a demo and left the dielectric longer than you would need to if using RCA connectors.

The 1505f is excellent cable for interconnects. You can also use it for digital applications.

 

[Allanmarcus]

To add to what @Paladin79 said. After removing about an inch of the outer insolation, I use a small screw driver to gently separate the braid, then using the screwdriver again, I split the now straight wires of the shield into on one side of the wire, the twist them together on the other side (as shown in Paladin's pic above. Then either put a short bit of heat shrink or tin the whole resultant wire.

 

[Paladin79]

I have done so many of those cables that I rarely use much beyond a pocket knife to remove the jacket and dielectric, small side cutters to trim excess wire and that is about it for me. My preference on side cutters is Lindstrom, knife by Boker.

 

[Paladin79]

Newark is having a sale on Tenma soldering stations and products. I have used some of their equipment in the past and had good experiences with it but I have never personally used their soldering stations. The first and second items listed, that soldering station for $59.95 and the fume extractor for $34.95 are very good prices for that type of product IMHO. Same with one pound of rosin core solder for $17.99. If you are ever working with a solder pot, that type of fume extractor can be most important.


http://www.newark.com/tenmasolder?C...MA-HERO&et_cid=29872761&et_rid=915136859&cmp=

 

[CoiL]

Any recommendations where from can I get similar very soft coating (PVC/silicone) copper cable as comes with iBasso IT01?

 

[Allanmarcus]

Any recommendations where from can I get similar very soft coating (PVC/silicone) copper cable as comes with iBasso IT01?

I have to admit I've never touched this wire, but always wondered about it

https://www.adafruit.com/category/282

it's AdaFruit's silicone wire page. They re a DIY computer site. If you get some, please post your results and impressions.

 

[Paladin79]

I have used silicone wire and it should definitely be soft and flexible. I did a search for some pre-made cables for the Ibasso just for the heck of it and most were $99 up, for that price you can order new iems with cable lol. It reminded me of folks who would buy a whole ink jet printer every time they ran out of ink cause the cartridges were so expensive.

 

[CoiL]

I have to admit I've never touched this wire, but always wondered about it
https://www.adafruit.com/category/282
it's AdaFruit's silicone wire page. They re a DIY computer site. If you get some, please post your results and impressions.

48$ for shipping to EU ? LOL, heck NO!

IT01 cable is by far the most softest&flexible IEM cable I have ever touched and own.