dkm24
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- Aug 15, 2002
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I jumped into portable audio because I finished my diy speakers for my home system and thought I would explore the portable area. I have found out something interesting. The wires in my home system were decent but not top dollar. Wires are wires to me. Well I decided to buy an interconnect from Markertek to go between my pcdp and the CHA47 headphone amp. While waiting for it to come I thought I would make one. I already have the Rat Shack mini to mini. I went to Rat Shack and bought some gold minis(soldering and solderless kind) and I have plenty of wire hanging around the house. I have a lot of cat5 wire. I made two interconnects.
I will describe the two:
Interconnect 1- Just three strands of cat5 in shrink wrap tubing terminated by solderless minis.
Interconnect 2- Three strands of cat5. Each wire wound in plumbers teflon tubing, then all three wires wound together in teflon. That that in turn shrunk wrapped then wound again in electrical tape. Terminated by soldered minis.
Interconnect 3- Standard Rat Shack mini to mini that you buy off the shelf.
Well now I have three interconnects. 1 and 2 totally blow 3 away. 1 was a huge improvement in the bass (Grado RS-1's). I did notice that the bass out louder levels was a bit sloppy. 1 blew 2 away. 1's bass was tight and so much more detailed. 1 picked up a lot more spatial cues. There was so much air between the instruments. 1's soundstage open up. The darkness which is inherant on the RS-1's was gone. The headphones sound so much different. I am no engineer but I was shocked at what teflon and soldering could do. These interconnects are wonderful. They can be made without ordering anything. Just drop by Rat Shack and Home Depot and you are good to go. I will be curious at what the Canare mini is going to sound like. I really have to re-evaluate the value of wires in a system. Does anybody have any more hints on DIY interconnects? doug
I will describe the two:
Interconnect 1- Just three strands of cat5 in shrink wrap tubing terminated by solderless minis.
Interconnect 2- Three strands of cat5. Each wire wound in plumbers teflon tubing, then all three wires wound together in teflon. That that in turn shrunk wrapped then wound again in electrical tape. Terminated by soldered minis.
Interconnect 3- Standard Rat Shack mini to mini that you buy off the shelf.
Well now I have three interconnects. 1 and 2 totally blow 3 away. 1 was a huge improvement in the bass (Grado RS-1's). I did notice that the bass out louder levels was a bit sloppy. 1 blew 2 away. 1's bass was tight and so much more detailed. 1 picked up a lot more spatial cues. There was so much air between the instruments. 1's soundstage open up. The darkness which is inherant on the RS-1's was gone. The headphones sound so much different. I am no engineer but I was shocked at what teflon and soldering could do. These interconnects are wonderful. They can be made without ordering anything. Just drop by Rat Shack and Home Depot and you are good to go. I will be curious at what the Canare mini is going to sound like. I really have to re-evaluate the value of wires in a system. Does anybody have any more hints on DIY interconnects? doug
