[dudlew]

There I was at home last night and decided to do some cable experimentation. I had some extra speaker cable, some 'braided' IXOS cable (one of there Gamma cables... they were given to me and I can't remember the model number), and some connectors and I soldered them on.

Now I am a Novice 'solderer' so I know the job I did was not great but was good enough to give me a connection. So I wrapped the joints with electrical tape for insulation and screwed on the cap.

I plugged them up and prayed that I didnt do a botch job. They worked..... whew!!!

I listened and I was immediately surprised! the sound was fuller and more extended, the back ground seems clearer (blacker??) and the trebled was less harsh and more realistic sounding.

I am surprised at the difference in sound especially considering that I reused connectors from a cheap cable I had long destroyed and of my bad soldering skills!!

I will get some better connectors and also get someone who can solder better than I can and try this later. For the mean time I am pleased with my botch work,

I am now considering that if you like your speaker cable and it is compact enough, try it as an interconnect, he characteristics that make it a good speaker cable could very well make it a good interconect!!


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[dudlew]

Just a picture I got off the web of what the cable looks like.


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[stuartr]

I am glad you like it. You do have to be careful doing stuff like this though...you always want to make sure you test the cable with a meter to see whether it conducts, otherwise you can potentially fry your equipment. Or that's what I thought at least. Also, I think most people have better interconnects than speaker cable (though this might not be the best way to do it), so for many, it might be a step down in quality...
Cool that it worked for you though. The cables do look good as well, which is nice.

 

[dudlew]

Thanks stuartr.

I will get them re-done properly in the near future.

There are some companies that actually use the same cable for both duties.

The picture I showed was from an actual interconnect that is sold by Ixos, and my speaker cable looks just like it. also DNM has done this with there Reson cables, which, for there price, are well regarded cables in the European market.

I do intend to buy some interconnects also and I would love to do a comparison with some other cables. My brother is a good candidate as he has Van Den Hul, Cable Talk and Straight wire interconnects in his system.

It is an experiment however and I actaully would recommend the cable I use as excellent speaker cables to begin with, besting the Monster and QED cables I have heard it against.

Thanks again for the advice


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[carlo]

dudlew,

In case you're interested:

http://www.geocities.com/jonrisch/index2.htm
http://www.venhaus1.com/diysilverinterconnects.html
http://www.tnt-audio.com/clinica/diycables.html