[morph2k4]

I'm looking at starting my first real recabling project, and was hoping to get some advice about what to start with.  I want to make a custom silver wire for my SA-5000, but I'm a bit unsure of a few things. 
 
1.  Is there some reason the Silver Dragon cable is so cheap?  It seems to come in at around 2/3 what the raw wire costs from HGA.  1 foot of silver dragon is 20 dollars, and that is sleeved in rubber (is there a name for the rubber sleeving?).  The HGA wire costs 30/foot, and does not have the same sleeving.  Silver Dragon seems like an unbeatable deal.
 
2.  Is there a specific name for the plastic piece that houses the split in a headphone cord where the two driver lines separate?  I recall seeing a plastic adapter available somewhere, but I don't see it on HGA or moon-audio, and I'm not sure what exactly to search for.
 
3.  Are there some sites I should be looking at other than HGA and moon-audio?
 
4.  Does one typically add a nylon sleeve on top of the rubber sleeve that the Silver Dragon has, or is the nylon an alternative sleeving option?
 
5.  Is there some particular type of connector that is better suited to detatchable cables then a 3.5mm mono plug?  I modded a pair of grado's to have the cables disconnect this way, but I found that the mono plugs pull out easily.  Is there some standard locking jack that would do a better job?
 
Thanks for your time, any help would be greatly appreciated

 

[scootermafia]

Quote:

I'm looking at starting my first real recabling project, and was hoping to get some advice about what to start with.  I want to make a custom silver wire for my SA-5000, but I'm a bit unsure of a few things. 
 
1.  Is there some reason the Silver Dragon cable is so cheap?  It seems to come in at around 2/3 what the raw wire costs from HGA.  1 foot of silver dragon is 20 dollars, and that is sleeved in rubber (is there a name for the rubber sleeving?).  The HGA wire costs 30/foot, and does not have the same sleeving.  Silver Dragon seems like an unbeatable deal.
 
2.  Is there a specific name for the plastic piece that houses the split in a headphone cord where the two driver lines separate?  I recall seeing a plastic adapter available somewhere, but I don't see it on HGA or moon-audio, and I'm not sure what exactly to search for.
 
3.  Are there some sites I should be looking at other than HGA and moon-audio?
 
4.  Does one typically add a nylon sleeve on top of the rubber sleeve that the Silver Dragon has, or is the nylon an alternative sleeving option?
 
5.  Is there some particular type of connector that is better suited to detatchable cables then a 3.5mm mono plug?  I modded a pair of grado's to have the cables disconnect this way, but I found that the mono plugs pull out easily.  Is there some standard locking jack that would do a better job?
 
Thanks for your time, any help would be greatly appreciated

1) Silver Dragon is just a very good deal.  You're getting 4 wires of 26 gauge stranded OCC silver, with a foil and braid shield, and a soft PVC-like jacket.  It's a pretty comfortable cable.  Drew is selling this item at a very fair price, you would be hard pressed to get your own wire like this made for that price.  The wire's also OCC rather than conventional silver as with HGA, take from that what you will.
2) Those are called y-splitters or cable pants.  I recommend the Viablue black aluminum y-split cover.  AV-outlet sells these, with free shipping too (if you buy 3 or more).  
3) There's various silver options out there from putting jewelry grade silver wire into cotton up to machine made purpose built headphone cables like the Moon SD3, but the Moon cable is ready to go, just strip off the jacket and shielding carefully with an xacto knife for the first 14 inches or so.  It's star quad so there's 2 pairs wound together, separate them and keep them in the twist pattern they were wound in (don't totally unravel them, just separate them into 2 pairs) and then you can sheath them if you want.  I've worked with SD3 before and the 1/8" Flexo Pet black sleeving from wirecare.com is a good size.  
4) You can sleeve the cable if you want.  Moon doesn't do that, because the jacket is tough and good looking.  It's a nice looking material so sleeving is option.
5) You can fit a 3 or even 4 pin mini XLR (for 4 pin you've got duplicate pins, like two for + and two for -, and with 3 pin you can just omit one of the pins and not use it).  The socket is kind of big.  I don't know every square inch of the SA5000 so I couldn't tell you.  Drew does offer a pro-style (similar to Lemo or HD800 connectors) connector that you could fit it with.  These sort of connectors require precision to solder but are worth the effort.  Ken at ALO also sells identical sockets to that of the Sennheiser HD800, and then you can use Sennheiser HD800 plugs for the cable.  Also requires skill to solder - I recommend putting a bit of glue-shrink between the pins, like a little square, where you solder so you don't cause any shorts.