[nikko510]

I found 75 ohm BNC plugs that were only made for the military.
They are entirely non-magnetic and very heavily silver plated.
Are these plugs suitable for making a 75 ohm clock cable?

 

[MartinWT]

You would need to ultrasonic clean them first.
Then you would need to preserve them to prevent them from oxidising again.
You would also need assembly instructions as I've never seen so many components to a BNC plug.

 

[nikko510]

I had problems with the LMR400 50ohm cable bought on aliexpress.
I disassembled this cable and please see what the pins on the plugs look like. Not only that, the middle aluminum cable itself, which is covered with copper, is of similar quality - a massacre.
It is better to make BNC cables yourself, because the quality and workmanship of these cables is very low.

 

[piguetpolo]

I had problems with the LMR400 50ohm cable bought on aliexpress.
I disassembled this cable and please see what the pins on the plugs look like. Not only that, the middle aluminum cable itself, which is covered with copper, is of similar quality - a massacre.
It is better to make BNC cables yourself, because the quality and workmanship of these cables is very low.

There's a reason they cost all of $16 shipped from China to the US.

Not sure how thick the copper plating surrounding the Aluminum core should be on a real LMR400, but the Aliexpress knock-off is super thin.

 

[Thetaburn]

After over 200 hours of burn in on the OCK-2 and HT DC3 cable, I believe it is definitely worth the ~500usd.

From the subtle effects of sine wave to the noticeable effects of the square wave and everything in between.
It's versatile as I can choose between 2 sound signatures. (changing from sine to wave output takes less than 15 seconds).

Sine wave (U18 DDC Ext and x26pro Int) - subtle effects of sharper / more focused background music and vocals. Good for acoustic or chill music.
Sine wave (U18 DDC Ext and x26pro Ext) - bit more pronounced than above.

Square wave (U18 DDC Ext and x26pro Int) - background and vocals sharper / more focused. Imaging improves. Perceived treble energy increases. A great pairing for EDM music.
Square wave (u18 DDC Ext and x26pro Ext) - all of the above and background music pops and micro dynamics improve.

Thanks to those that recommend the OCK-2.

 

[dougms3]

I had problems with the LMR400 50ohm cable bought on aliexpress.
I disassembled this cable and please see what the pins on the plugs look like. Not only that, the middle aluminum cable itself, which is covered with copper, is of similar quality - a massacre.
It is better to make BNC cables yourself, because the quality and workmanship of these cables is very low.

The LMR400 spec is a CCA conductor. Its basically copper plated aluminum.

Its very cheap and the sound quality is quite poor.

Its not just this cable, its all LMR400 cables, as its a specification not a brand. A so called "pro" cable. Its good for the price but searching for a better version of an LMR400 cable is like complaining about the quality of a turd and looking for a shinier better turd.

Doesn't matter where its made, its a turd, just get a better cable.

 

[joenetic]

The LMR400 spec is a CCA conductor. Its basically copper plated aluminum.

Its very cheap and the sound quality is quite poor.

Its not just this cable, its all LMR400 cables, as its a specification not a brand. A so called "pro" cable. Its good for the price but searching for a better version of an LMR400 cable is like complaining about the quality of a turd and looking for a shinier better turd.

Doesn't matter where its made, its a turd, just get a better cable.

Actually LMR400 cable as a 10Mhz clock cable is better than my Sommer OFC 50ohm cable, LMR400 is much cheaper than Sommer cable, so it is not bad for the price.

 

[Highfive99]

The LMR400 spec is a CCA conductor. Its basically copper plated aluminum.

Its very cheap and the sound quality is quite poor.

Its not just this cable, its all LMR400 cables, as its a specification not a brand. A so called "pro" cable. Its good for the price but searching for a better version of an LMR400 cable is like complaining about the quality of a turd and looking for a shinier better turd.

Doesn't matter where its made, its a turd, just get a better cable.

Correct that LMR400 is a spec. It spec'd as a low loss cable. I have Anatel CMT400, their version of the LMR400, and the sound quality is anything but 'quite poor' as you put it. It gives me no reason to spend 7x the price I paid for it to get a HT DC III or whatever more expensive cable.

And, yes, it does matter where it is made. Perhaps the Alixpress LMR400 knockoffs are crap but a TMS or in my case the Anatel is certainly no turd of a cable. If someone buys an LMR400 and there is no manufacture printing on it that you can research then all bets are off as to the quality of that cable. But to say all LMR400 are turds is just flat out wrong as there are plenty of people who are quite happy with a true LMR400 and say they sound better than cables that are more costly. See joenetic post above as just one example.

 

[dougms3]

Actually LMR400 cable as a 10Mhz clock cable is better than my Sommer OFC 50ohm cable, LMR400 is much cheaper than Sommer cable, so it is not bad for the price.

Yes, as i said, not bad for the price...

Better thana cheap generic cable but its still a turd compared to the better offerings.

Correct that LMR400 is a spec. It spec'd as a low loss cable. I have Anatel CMT400, their version of the LMR400, and the sound quality is anything but 'quite poor' as you put it. It gives me no reason to spend 7x the price I paid for it to get a HT DC III or whatever more expensive cable.

And, yes, it does matter where it is made. Perhaps the Alixpress LMR400 knockoffs are crap but a TMS or in my case the Anatel is certainly no turd of a cable. If someone buys an LMR400 and there is no manufacture printing on it that you can research then all bets are off as to the quality of that cable. But to say all LMR400 are turds is just flat out wrong as there are plenty of people who are quite happy with a true LMR400 and say they sound better than cables that are more costly. See joenetic post above as just one example.

Dont buy an expensive cable then.

Its made for low attenuation over long distance as cca is useful for that purpose and it can handle a higher voltage surge vs pure copper.

But for sound quality, it's a turd compared to the better offerings.

Cca conductor is garbage.

I' m using the lmr400 right now and the fact that a small piece of copper tape improves the sound so drastically should indicate the level of quality of the cable.

 

[dougms3]

And just to be clear, this is not just me guessing or hating on the cable for no reason.

In my chain, I have the lmr400 cable connected to my di20he and the oyaide bnc cable connected to my r8mk2. I wanted to test the lmr400 vs the oyaide. So I disabled the external clock on the dac and only used the ddc to clock connection with both cables to compare the sound.

Even though the impedance doesn't match, as the oyaide bnc is 75ohms vs 50ohms for the lmr400, I just wanted to get an idea of the performance level of the lmr400 because these are the only two clock cables I have. The oyaide bnc sounds leagues better, its really not comparable. Yes, it is literally 10x more expensive than the lmr400. Again, I agree the lmr400 is good for the price, but its really nowhere near the capability of the cables like the oyaide, tubulus, HT, or other cables of this caliber. I'm sure there may be some variability in the quality of cable depending on where or who makes it, but since the spec calls for a CCA conductor, I can't imagine that even the best quality version of the lmr400 will sound anywhere near the level of the other cables mentioned.

If you're happy with the lmr400 or messi clock cable, thats great, congrats. But if you're trying to convince others that its not necessary to buy a better cable because they perform at the same level as the more expensive cables, that sounds like the moral for the "Fox and the grapes" fable. To be honest, I wish it did perform on the same level, it'd save me some money, but it doesn't . It is what it is, either you can be happy with what you have or get something better.

I have used CCA cables in the past, replacing wiring inside PLCs and also on car audio systems, its quite bad for audio, I tried to save a few bucks but ended up replacing all of the wiring with ofc or occ wire.

One thing of note, I noticed that the clock connection to the DDC seems to have a greater impact on the sound vs clock connection only to the dac. I'm just making observations and I thought that was interesting. My chain is in my sig.

 

[Fibre101]

I had the knockoff lmr400s that I was unware of and recently upgraded to the ht. I'm only a few days in. It was almost like I was fooled by what my system was giving me before I upgraded to the ht. Dry vocals, closed in imaging, somewhat shouty at times. The ht fixed pretty much everything and is somewhat more of an improved version of my internal clocks. Thanks for the recommendation guys.

 

[nikko510]

Finally, after great effort, I managed to make a 75 ohm cable on a silver conductor - in a double braid.
I had a huge problem with the confection of my best plugs, they did not fit the cable at all, and in addition they had a lot of parts that had to be drilled.
As you can see, I had plugs for this cable, but they are of very poor quality, and the gold-plated one is the worst.
The plugs on which I made the cable are so precise that they will not budge when plugged into the socket.

 

[MartinWT]

One thing of note, I noticed that the clock connection to the DDC seems to have a greater impact on the sound vs clock connection only to the dac.

It certainly does for me: clock into the DDC set for EXT. Clock goes via I2S to the DAC set to INT. Both benefit, only one clock connection.

 

[Thetaburn]

For those who use the HT DC3 cable - is the arrow on the cable pointing towards the DDC or Clock?
I noticed the sound signature is much more enjoyable if pointing toward the clock.

For the LMR400 cable - since my cable didn't have any markings, I tried it both ways and didn't notice a difference.

 

[Ghoostknight]

For those who use the HT DC3 cable - is the arrow on the cable pointing towards the DDC or Clock?
I noticed the sound signature is much more enjoyable if pointing toward the clock.

For the LMR400 cable - since my cable didn't have any markings, I tried it both ways and didn't notice a difference.

normally cables with directions arrows should point towards the second device in the chain

most if not all cables with direction put shield just on one side, which should be on the side of the first device