[SayNoToPistons]

I have some questions:
- What type of solder do you guys use?
- Do you notice an improvement in sound when you use silver solder?
- How about solder paste?
- If i use the star quad cables for rca-rca, do i used both whites for signal and both blues for ground?
- What is the thickness (in diameter) of the canare star quad cables?
- Should i use some other cable for rca-rca interconnects instead of the canare star quad?
- What other cables can i use to make quality rca-rca interconnects? I'm looking for really thick and durable cables.

 

[XFxGeforced]

i use 3% silver solder

 

[FallenAngel]

Quote:

Originally Posted by SayNoToPistons /img/forum/go_quote.gif - What type of solder do you guys use?

Kester 63/37 is very good and very nice to work with.

Quote:

Originally Posted by SayNoToPistons /img/forum/go_quote.gif - Do you notice an improvement in sound when you use silver solder?

You shouldn't since it's not the solder that conducts the signal, there should always be a mechanical connection. Silver bearing solder just sticks to silver better, use only when soldering Silver wire, Silver plated copper wire or your PCB is silver (never seen before).

Quote:

Originally Posted by SayNoToPistons /img/forum/go_quote.gif - How about solder paste?

Uhm... not sure.

Quote:

Originally Posted by SayNoToPistons /img/forum/go_quote.gif - If i use the star quad cables for rca-rca, do i used both whites for signal and both blues for ground?

Sure, or one for each and carry 2 channels.

Quote:

Originally Posted by SayNoToPistons /img/forum/go_quote.gif - What is the thickness (in diameter) of the canare star quad cables?

Check the datasheet, there are a few different types of wires that Canare makes.

Quote:

Originally Posted by SayNoToPistons /img/forum/go_quote.gif - Should i use some other cable for rca-rca interconnects instead of the canare star quad?

StarQuad is pretty nice for RCA-RCA, but the choices are limitless.

Quote:

Originally Posted by SayNoToPistons /img/forum/go_quote.gif - What other cables can i use to make quality rca-rca interconnects? I'm looking for really thick and durable cables.

Same as above.

Enjoy your building

 

[SayNoToPistons]

OK, that helps! Thanks! and Happy new years!

 

[warMen]

I made my first interconnect out of Cat5e ethernet cable. Can't tell how it sounds because I haven't used it with my headphones yet, only my crap stereo. Only thing I know is that the channels go in and out. This is because I forgot to put one of the adapter sleeve things on before I put on the last connector, so I had to melt the solder off and do it again

. there was quite a bit of excess solder I couldn't get off so it probably has a crappy connection. Oh well. I made this mistake twice too, once yesterday. Lesson learned.

Anyway I just bought some speaker wire so I plan on making an IC out of that instead next time.

Are gold or silver plugs better?

 

[SayNoToPistons]

^
I just made an interconnect out of cat5 (Ethernet) cables and really crappy/old Monster RCA connectors. 4 out of the 16 wires were enough ( 2 for ground and 2 for signal) but i some how was able to stuff all 16 of them (8 for ground and 8 for signal) into the connectors and soldered them in. Very hard to solder that many wires but it worked. Sounds surprisingly good. They sound warmer than my 70 OHM triaxial Gepco studio camera DIY interconnects i made (almost as good as my Gepco IMHO). Looks a little.... fruity... with all those fruity colors twisted into one.

 

[Dave_M]

Hi, I want to make interconnect with solid core copper conductor. All "audio grade" cables use stranded copper conductor. I found some higher spec cable that looks like it should work. It is described as "OFC Professional serial digital coax". Maybe it is a bit over the top or not suitable. What do you think..

Conductor: 0.60mm OFC copper
Dielectric: foamed polyethlene
Inner screen: aluminium tape 100% coverage
Outer screen: braided OFC copper 95% coverage
Jacket: PVC/neoprene/LSOH compound
Overall diameter: 4.5mm
Impedance: 75Ω
Capacitance: 53pF/m
Attenuation: 1MHz0.4dB/100m
10MHz2.252dB/100m
100MHz6.0dB/100m

 

[laxx]

Quote:

Originally Posted by daggerlee /img/forum/go_quote.gif Received some Neutrik Profi RCA connectors today. These are very cool - they have a spring loaded connector, so that the ground always makes contact, and then the ground sleeve retracts back, allowing for a very deep connection into the RCA jack. Very cool. They are only $11 a pair at Markertek, cheaper by a few bucks than anywhere else I have seen on the internet. Cant wait to get my SPC wire and make a nice pair of interconnects. Also received some 1/8" neutrik plugs - can't believe I was paying $3.50 a pop for Switchcrafts when I coulda bought these for 80 cents each Got some mogami mini star quad, can't believe how thin it is - will be recabling my KSC75s and (hopefully) MS1s shortly.

I actually don't like the Pro-Fi's. I made a set of RCA's for wnewport with the Canare F-10 RCA's and made myself a set with Pro-Fi's and I dont' like how hard it is to plug the Pro-Fi's in. It's a major pain to force them into my Aria and CDP.

 

[SoundGoon]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dave_M /img/forum/go_quote.gif Hi, I want to make interconnect with solid core copper conductor. All "audio grade" cables use stranded copper conductor. I found some higher spec cable that looks like it should work. It is described as "OFC Professional serial digital coax". Maybe it is a bit over the top or not suitable. What do you think.. Conductor: 0.60mm OFC copper Dielectric: foamed polyethlene Inner screen: aluminium tape 100% coverage Outer screen: braided OFC copper 95% coverage Jacket: PVC/neoprene/LSOH compound Overall diameter: 4.5mm Impedance: 75Ω Capacitance: 53pF/m Attenuation: 1MHz0.4dB/100m 10MHz2.252dB/100m 100MHz6.0dB/100m

Should work nicely; you plan on using the braid as ground and the copper as signal?

 

[FallenAngel]

If you're making an analog interconnect, you don't NEED 75Ohm, and the whole OFC thing is a big sham. All copper cables are OFC, otherwise, it's just bad cable manufacturing.

Not sure if all audio grade cables are stranded, I'd say they're mostly stranded to keep them flexible. Trust me, unless you're going for fairly thing guage cables with very thing coating/tubing, you usually don't want solid core for audio, especially headphone cables or short IC's. You might be ok with it for longer interconnects, but I've just build a couple of Belden 89259 interconnects and they're stiff as a baord, almost impossible to work with in short lengths. Unless you're connecting very heavy things, you'll have serious pull/strain on the cable. I built a pair of cables, about 2' each and if I want to connect it to my little AlienDAC, it'll be pointing at the sky like a woddy in the morning!

 

[Dave_M]

Quote:

Originally Posted by SoundGoon /img/forum/go_quote.gif Should work nicely; you plan on using the braid as ground and the copper as signal?

Yes.


When I say all audio grade cables are stranded, I mean cables designed for making interconnects that you buy from electronics shops like Farnell. I know 75 Ohm isnt needed, but that is for very high freq stuff. For analog audio that cable should be 0 Ohm more or less. I heard solid core sounds better than stranded (more spacious and airy soundstage, but slightly less bass). I thought I would see for myself. The only solid core copper cables I could find came under the "Video And RF Cable" catagory.

That cable is only 0.6mm core, so shouldn't be too stiff, I hope. Also overall diameter is 4.5mm which is important because usually RCA plugs only allow 5mm max. (typical video/RF cable is more like 1mm core, 6mm outer diameter)

FallenAngel, if your DAC is reaching for the heavens in the morning you must take a picture

 

[FallenAngel]

0.6mm is around 22.5 - 23 AWG, shouldn't be too bad, but still might be kind of stiff. Yes, the general consensus is that solid cables sound a little better than stranded, I personally can't confirm since I've never seen 2 cables that except for being solid vs stranded were by the same manufacturer / same process / etc.

Dave_M : I'll try the 89259 IC's with my AlienDAC for pics in a couple of days

 

[SayNoToPistons]

Quote:

Originally Posted by SoundGoon /img/forum/go_quote.gif Should work nicely; you plan on using the braid as ground and the copper as signal?

That the only proper way to do it.

 

[ronmtorres]

i just finished my first interconnect using a cat5 cable. what i did was choose three wires (i think there were 6-8 wires) and used them as connection points. i cut the wires i did not use. my problem is when i plug them to my amp and my czv:m, i cannot plug one end completely or the sound becomes only on one side of my can (mono). if i do not insert the whole 3.5mm plug, the sound becomes stereo. what could be the problem here? thanks!

 

[SayNoToPistons]

Seems like you might've mixed up with the wire connections... check the colors again.