DIY Silver Cable Day

[spyderx]

I love to tinker so over the past couple weeks I read-up a bit on all the "theory" behind some silver based cables. I ended up picking up the supplies to make several silver wire cables. This included pure silver wire (24ga), teflon PTFE tubing for the dielectric, connectors, techflex, heat shrink, wbt silver solder, etc. I have a bunch of higher end soldering and electronic repair equipment, so I didn't need that stuff.

Out of pocket cost: About $250 for enough supplies to make:
1 1ft pair rca
1 3ft pair rca
1 4ft pair balanced xlr
5 1.5ft balanced xlr
1 4ft pair speaker (for my low power office setup, 5 wires, 17ga equiv)
Total: 13 cables

Given the cost that "hi-fi" cables cost, this is pretty cheap. I could have gone way higher-end with WBT connectors....

Not surprisingly, the wire itself is not very expensive. About $ .50 / ft. For a pair of 3ft RCA you need 18ft of wire. (3 wires per pair, balanced ground connection... ). I got this from a commercial jewelry supply (.999 dead soft 24ga wire), about $22/oz for the silver. And, not surprisingly the connectors are the most expensive part. I got cardas SLVR (keeping with the silver theme) for the plugs. Neutrik silver plated for the balanced. And Cardas silver spades for the bi-wire speaker setup.

So assembly is not hard, just time consuming. Feeding small 24ga wire into the 24ga teflon is easy up to about 3ft. Then it becomes a test in patience. The soldering and wire assembly part is easy. Just took a while to figure out how to leverage heat shrink to keep things clean.

So how does it sound?

The same? (I was using decent quality copper based RCA/XLR before) hahahaha My wife claims she thinks it sounds more crisp and clear. I don't know about that, I can't quite hear it. The good news is it sounds great, like it did before. I'm just glad it didn't introduce noise into the system since the shielding is a very simple braided/twist setup with no shielding.

But, the cables look cool and I guess I got some audio bling. And it kept me busy for a Saturday morning. Oh, any my friends were impressed with my solid silver wiring.

FYI: I have 2 setups: Citypluse DAC --> Jolida 102b --> Usher S520 and MacMini --> Benchmark USB DAC1 --> BAT VK-300xSE --> Totem Hawks.

Pictures later of the cables I made.

 

[spyderx]

Pic of an RCA and an XLR. All the others look like this. The 1/8 tech flex covers the 3 PTFE enclosed silver wires. I did this for durability.

 

[AudioCats]

may I ask where did you get the 24awg 99.9% silver @ 50 cents per foot?
Do they also have 22awg stuff?

 

[spyderx]

Just track down any jewelry wholesaler. Keep in mind this is not insulated, so you need to get PTFE (Teflon) to use as the dielectric. You can get this at McMaster Carr. Just search on Spaghetti Tubing. For lengths under 4ft, you can get the tubing the same size as the wire. For longer than 4ft I'd get the next size tubing.

SFJS Online - Santa Fe Jewelers Supply I don't know if they have a minimum. I ordered about 2.5oz which is about 125ft at 24ga. 22ga is going to cost about .70 / ft. Their fine silver is .999 dead soft which is what you want for wire.

 

[Hardflip]

I have some 18awg solid core silver wire on order from Homegrownaudio and some of their silver plated LOKs. I also have some solder that contains silver. I am going to braid the wire into a 4-strand Litz and connect 2 rca's at both ends.

I am curious to see how they will compare to my silver coated copper braided rcas and my Blue Jeans LC-1's.

I have way too many cables because I love to make them and experiment with different wires and connectors

Edit: btw really nice work on your cables

 

[AudioCats]

spyderx, thanks for the link. I have checked ebay before and only saw sterling silver, now I know where to get fine silver from

I have 500ft of teflon tube already, and since this is only for making power cable, I really don't want to use the 9999 stuff from HGA ( my current test cable has 24awg HGA silver/teflon in it, it will cost too much for a power cords).

 

[shomie911]

Quote:

Originally Posted by spyderx /img/forum/go_quote.gif So how does it sound? The same? (I was using decent quality copper based RCA/XLR before) hahahaha My wife claims she thinks it sounds more crisp and clear. I don't know about that, I can't quite hear it. The good news is it sounds great, like it did before. I'm just glad it didn't introduce noise into the system since the shielding is a very simple braided/twist setup with no shielding.

Since when do non-audiophiles say that something that costs money sounds better?

I'm used to the whole "Why don't you just keep what you have, it all sounds the same anyway."

 

[johnsonad]

Quote:

Originally Posted by shomie911 /img/forum/go_quote.gif Since when do non-audiophiles say that something that costs money sounds better? I'm used to the whole "Why don't you just keep what you have, it all sounds the same anyway."

LOL! Thanks for this post

 

[spyderx]

Funny. I think she saw all the work to put these together and wanted to make me feel good about it.