my DIY Cat5 audio interconnects

[sonick]

Edit: I changed my mind on the cables, took them apart, and rewired them, this time i actually made the effort to braid it (using the Litz braiding method), and decided to get rid of the vinyl tubing. I used pretty much the same method as the ones here: http://www.platenspeler.com/diy/cabling/uk_4play_1.html

Original: http://www.sfu.ca/~nns/ic.jpg

This is my first real pair of interconnects made...

they were inspired by the minimalistic design of 'Breath of God' cables

Cost i estimate (in canadian dollars):
Connectors: $1.95
Vinyl Tubing: $2.00
Cat5 Plenum: $2.56
Work: 2 hours? Dunno, time flies when ur in the middle of a project

How do they sound? havent had the chance to take a real serious listen, but they do WORK, and dont sound obviously horrible

I didnt expect them to sound great, they're mainly for looks

Im surprised that they dont have any hiss or interference, seeing they're not shielded at all.

They were made with 2 twisted pairs per cable (so thats 4 wires per cable). One twisted pair per 'terminal'. I just wish the wires inside the Cat5 were more colorful.

The project was born mostly from boredom...

 

[Sycraft]

Well the no interference isn't supprising, that is the reason for Cat-5 to exist. They have exceptional noise rejection characteristics. I mean it's not trivial doing 1 gigabit over 100 metres, but Cat-5 does it.

The only problem you might encounter is I think Cat-5 is fairly high impediance. Not sure though. Normally for audio over Cat-5 you use a Balun to match impedeances.

 

[flecom]

why 3 wires?

 

[sonick]

3 wires? there are four... two per 'lead'.

 

[flecom]

oh ok...

why 4 wires?

wouldent 2 work better? less impediance?

 

[Sycraft]

Well messing with the brading and such kind of defeats the point of Cat-5. The twists in it are VERY specific. They need to be just as they are to function properly. If you mess around with it, you probably lessen or destroy whatever RF reduction it had.

 

[Garbz]

I don't believe that applies to the audio theory. The twists are specific to data from what i've heard. That is also the reason why GigaBit and in somecase Hudnred Megabit connectsion can only be established if they are crimped in a certain way.

For Audio purposes i think in a Litz braid it probably has better noise characteristics then in the standard twisted pair config, but litz is useless for data.

 

[flecom]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Garbz I don't believe that applies to the audio theory. The twists are specific to data from what i've heard. That is also the reason why GigaBit and in somecase Hudnred Megabit connectsion can only be established if they are crimped in a certain way. For Audio purposes i think in a Litz braid it probably has better noise characteristics then in the standard twisted pair config, but litz is useless for data.

the twists are specific to their specification CAT5, CAT5e, CAT6 etc... the only way crimping can affect their capability is if the cable is crimped really poorly... 100% of all the cables ive had to crimp meet 1000mbit specs (have a real nice tester @ work)

shielding is most definately not useless for data... there is still shielded CAT5 aka STP (shielded twisted pair) its used in high-noise enviornments... it requires special hardware so it isnt very common

that and the price of fiber is not that high anymore so in most cases that called for STP its usually easier to put fiber...

multimode fiber interconnects hrmm

also some other common computer cables that are shielded, parallel, usb, firewire, list goes on

 

[recephasan]

I built two pairs of interconnects using CAT5 wires (2, not 4) and one pair using ratshack solid core 18AWG wire.
The one with the 18 gage did not have detail. The CAT5s did not have bass.

So I built one with 2 of CAT5 wires and 2 of 18AWG, 1ea for each connection.

Now it rocks. I have detail, good treble and solid, clear bass.

RECOMMENDED.

Interconnects are silver ratshack, ~$4-5/pair (I cannot recall). Guess I could do better there.

BTW: Someone with good grasp of the topic, please tell me: The return wire needs to be sufficiently thick, sometimes thicker than the signal, right?