A bit off-topic for those who want to go deep into cable theory and practice, I stumbled across this exchange with a bunch of quality contributions from a top cable designer. (I was looking into a theory of using foil conductors with grounding boxes so as to minimise the negative impact of skin effect when providing an ultra low resistance sink for HF noise on the ground plane... and y'know what, it works! )
Here is a photo of my first prototype usb cable in helix image. The two digital conductors in the central helix are pure quarter inch ribbon silver ( courtesy your friendly jeweller). No silicone or shrink wrap here, just wrapped in plumbers tape and sheathed in cotton. The black wire spiral ( in teflon tubing) is the power negative and last outer wire is the positive power.
In subsequent builds i used half inch wide silver ribbons for the digital signals and a closely wound negative (power) out of 14 gauge solid core copper of the type used in transformers. Cheap!. For the gustard r26 I left out the + power cable.
Suffice to say I got rid of my upwards of 600£ branded cable.
The only thing of any real expense in this cable is the silver. The connectors need to be the cheapo screw terminals type ( to accommodate the ribbon/thick gauge wires, so no soldering skills required). Early on I thought they would be a detriment to the sound, but the end result is simply astonishing.
Here is a photo of my first prototype usb cable in helix image. The two digital conductors in the central helix are pure quarter inch ribbon silver ( courtesy your friendly jeweller). No silicone or shrink wrap here, just wrapped in plumbers tape and sheathed in cotton. The black wire spiral ( in teflon tubing) is the power negative and last outer wire is the positive power.
In subsequent builds i used half inch wide silver ribbons for the digital signals and a closely wound negative (power) out of 14 gauge solid core copper of the type used in transformers. Cheap!. For the gustard r26 I left out the + power cable.
Suffice to say I got rid of my upwards of 600£ branded cable.
The only thing of any real expense in this cable is the silver. The connectors need to be the cheapo screw terminals type ( to accommodate the ribbon/thick gauge wires, so no soldering skills required). Early on I thought they would be a detriment to the sound, but the end result is simply astonishing.
Very cool. Thanks for sharing. Coincidentally just this arvo I moved this Mundorf silver foil out of my Audiophonics cart back to my wishlist where it belongs for now! (I'm assuming you used a foil something like this?)
In my experience, shielding of any kind be it on power cables, rca, ethernet or usb makes the sound flatter and 'closed in'. The only place I use shielding is inside the server. Shielding in audio in my humble opinion is overrated. I found out the hard way! I made all my cables with shielding and then ended up redoing them without.
I am currently making all my cables using the helix image and the results are phenomenal.
I'm pleased to hear somebody else saying this about shielding. I agree with Luvdac, finding that the use of shielding is greatly overrated and that sound quality is significantly improved without it. The reason is that Eddy Currents are induced by any electrical current into a metal sheath. This is then re-imposed onto the signal with a slight delay causing a blurring effect. I asked a local cable manufacturer to make interconnects for me without shielding and they have so much more clarity. It's not subtle. He's now marketing them as his "Elite" line - I can send a link to anyone who may be interested. I first became aware of the eddy-current effect pre-digital, many years ago when using a London Decca phono cartridge, which has a metal "can" (body) as standard. I was advised to remove the can by the Garrott Brothers (renown for their re-tipping & reworking of cartridges), but this resulted in a massive hum as a result of using my direct drive turntable. Solved this problem by placing an earthed, and slightly modified, pizza tray beneath the platter which shielded the motor from the cartridge but at some distance from it. Same reason high-end cartridges have wood, stone or no body. Anyway, my point is that Eddy Currents affect all our shielded interconnects etc, including coax digital cables - this is one reason why the glass toslink is superior, and why optical internet and wireless extenders give cleaner sound.
Very cool. Thanks for sharing. Coincidentally just this arvo I moved this Mundorf silver foil out of my Audiophonics cart back to my wishlist where it belongs for now! (I'm assuming you used a foil something like this?)
I had a rca cable made by a guy in Germany a few years back using flat ribbon silver. The type that comes stuck on a tape because its so thin that if one were to handle it without the tape it will tear. This cable is now somewhere amongst the odds and ends in my toolbox. The silver ribbon cable I use is made by a silversmith. Its a lot cheaper because its not occ, or some fancy brand. But it is pure 99.95% silver. Don't be fooled by numbers like 99.999 or the like. If you can, get it done by a silversmith and you'll save a packet. Plus the cable will be thick enought to handle. In my experience the amount of metal in the cable also has a bearing on the sound.
@Luvdac & @camrector do you guys both mean full Litz -style cables with each strand individually coated so as to minimise the impact of skin effect, then braided into a larger strand which tis then braided with a couple of other larger strands? Or some variant thereof if not full Litz? They say a picture is worth a thousand words...
Here is the site with the how to. There are some adaptions too. Pic is of a nicely done xlr example.
I add the “air” concept to all of mine by stripping the coating off the signal conductor and putting it in a slightly larger Teflon tube.
I am reaching out to inquire about the process of streaming Tidal in bit-perfect quality via LAN to the A26 DAC. I recently purchased the A26 DAC and would like to take advantage of its LAN input. I have read through the user manual but couldn't find specific instructions regarding this configuration. Additionally, I do not have Roon and would prefer not to purchase it.
I would greatly appreciate it if you could provide guidance on how to achieve bit-perfect streaming from Tidal via LAN to the A26 DAC. Is there a streaming app available specifically for the A26 that works with Tidal? Alternatively, could you explain how to utilize the built-in streamer in the A26 to stream both my stored music on my PC and Tidal in bit-perfect quality via LAN?
Thank you for your attention to this matter. I eagerly await your response.
Another proponent of the Helix design and unshielded cables. Fluty is spot on above, the propogating wave of the signal is traveling around the cable and is both elecrical and magnetic. Seems to me the shield is pretty likely to interfere with this attempt to propogate freely along the waveguide, aka wire. When the ground wire is spiralled around the conductor it is cancelling noise and perhaps behaving as a shield as well. Here are some ICs I made recently, connecting the R26 to my tube amp: Duelund 2.5mm flat silver in cotton sleeving, with a counter-spiral 28 ga Neotech bypass wire (high frequencies), with Neotech 16 ga copper spiral as the return. Connectors are AECO silver, my new favorites:
In my experience, shielding of any kind be it on power cables, rca, ethernet or usb makes the sound flatter and 'closed in'. The only place I use shielding is inside the server. Shielding in audio in my humble opinion is overrated. I found out the hard way! I made all my cables with shielding and then ended up redoing them without.
I am currently making all my cables using the helix image and the results are phenomenal.
Agreed, but to shield of the mains input and PSU section of my Hypex "homemade" amp definitely made a positive improvement, (using steel plates) I wouldn't say I got a flat sound after that So that I can highly recommend;
I am reaching out to inquire about the process of streaming Tidal in bit-perfect quality via LAN to the A26 DAC. I recently purchased the A26 DAC and would like to take advantage of its LAN input. I have read through the user manual but couldn't find specific instructions regarding this configuration. Additionally, I do not have Roon and would prefer not to purchase it.
I would greatly appreciate it if you could provide guidance on how to achieve bit-perfect streaming from Tidal via LAN to the A26 DAC. Is there a streaming app available specifically for the A26 that works with Tidal? Alternatively, could you explain how to utilize the built-in streamer in the A26 to stream both my stored music on my PC and Tidal in bit-perfect quality via LAN?
Thank you for your attention to this matter. I eagerly await your response.
There's no specific app for these DACs. Other than Roon, you can stream Tidal and your local files Audirvana Studio from your computer, or JPlay from an iOS device.
Using these players with the R26 and A26 has nothing special, it is similar to any other rstreamer.
I am reaching out to inquire about the process of streaming Tidal in bit-perfect quality via LAN to the A26 DAC. I recently purchased the A26 DAC and would like to take advantage of its LAN input. I have read through the user manual but couldn't find specific instructions regarding this configuration. Additionally, I do not have Roon and would prefer not to purchase it.
I would greatly appreciate it if you could provide guidance on how to achieve bit-perfect streaming from Tidal via LAN to the A26 DAC. Is there a streaming app available specifically for the A26 that works with Tidal? Alternatively, could you explain how to utilize the built-in streamer in the A26 to stream both my stored music on my PC and Tidal in bit-perfect quality via LAN?
Thank you for your attention to this matter. I eagerly await your response.
Streamer A26 has a different partitioning system than R26. I'm not sure if it will work on the R26 firmware, he can try. If it doesn't work, he can upload the original to A26. Unfortunately, to add TIDAL to the A26 firmware, I would have to physically have the device at home.
If I follow the 1st post suggestions, and I live in US, and I want to keep cost down...please let me know if the below list works.
Note: I have my Gustard R26 connected to my Wifi Mesh Unit currently. So I think the concept would be, the signal from the Mesh unit could be "dirty" and this would clean it up for optimal sound. Here are the products:
Does that list look correct to everyone? Not even sure how it all connects together and if I would be buying anything unnecessarily. Thoughts? I appreciate it!
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So that I can highly recommend;