[geforcewong]

Hi, I purchased a HD600 like a month ago and I'm planning on making my own headphone cable. I'm looking only for the highest quality parts to replicate the performance of the Moon Audio Silver Dragon . I will be doing this project with some people who have experience with soldering (engineers), so hopefully I can get a few questions answered before I give them my proposal.

First off, I have a Weller WTCPS (60W, 120V) soldering iron base station with a TC201P tip...

Parts planned to use:

1. Cardas GRQ S S 1/4" Phono plug ($13.88)
2. Where can I buy these Cardas sennheiser headphone connectors ? The closest thing I see in the catalog sheet they mailed me is

Part: Headphone Interconnect
.15m/6in $11.34
.31m/12in $17.22
1m/40in $27.78
2m/6.6ft $32.20

Don't know if this part represents what's featured on the website link above.

3. WBT Silver Solder or Cardas Quad Eutectic Solder
4. Two Layers of Techflex
5. Heatshrink (I have no idea how to go about finding the right kind, so please help.)
6. 24 AWG 99.99% Silver Wire in teflon tubing(Probably going to buy from HGA so I don't have to tube naked wire by myself). I plan on using either a 4 or 8 wire Litz Braid (Braid myself because buying prebraided wire is killer on the bank.)

Questions:

1. Is My soldering iron powerful enough to melt silver solder or other non-lead based types of solder? Do I need any other tools to complete this DIY project? I've heard something about termination kits including soldering pots, but what exactly is that?

2. Does the Gauge (AWG) of wire really matter that much in terms of quality and performance of sound? Should I go with Copper, Silver, or copper w/ silver plating?

3. Should I stick with Cardas 1/4" plugs or go with a neutrik? WBT Solder or Cardas Eutectic solder? What types of heatshrink is good? I don't understand the ratios (3:1, etc).

4. Are there dramatic sonical differences between a 4 or 8 wire Litz braid pattern.

5. Am I missing any other protective/sound maximizing layers that would make the cable thicker and more complete? I plan on just putting 2 layers of techflex over the litz braided wire and heatshrinking the ends.

6. Am I crazy for trying to do this as a first DIY project?

 

[nikongod]

q1: the weller wand you describe will melt all but solid silver. yes, it will work.

q6: as a first diy, yes you are insane if this is your first diy project. you could easliy spend over $100 in parts for this setup, and to destroy them from lack of expoeriance/skill would be a shame.

build something else first. like a fiew cheap amps. and half a dozen diferent interconects (rca, and mini/mini, and mini-1/4") or so. soldering those tiny little connectors is a pain in hte arse. also, after you do all of this "not directly related work" you will probably have spare parts to make this setup less expensive when you get there.

 

[kramer5150]

Use extreme caution soldering onto the solder pads on the drivers. The coil wires are extremely small and it doeesnt take much to sever that connection.

I recently toasted an 85$ driver in a sony MDR-CD870. I use a 40 watt weller and its MORE than enough. Ive done other driver mods/transplants, and recables before with various cans, and I always thought I knew what I was doing. Ive built 2 cmoys too.... So go figure?? I think I held the iron onto the pad just a little too long and it melted the coil lead wire.

I agree with the other post.... IMHO you should try and tackle a less delicate job first. Those a re some expensive drivers for a first time DIY'er.

Garrett

 

[RnB180]

Quote:

Originally Posted by geforcewong Questions: 1. Is My soldering iron powerful enough to melt silver solder or other non-lead based types of solder? Do I need any other tools to complete this DIY project? I've heard something about termination kits including soldering pots, but what exactly is that? 2. Does the Gauge (AWG) of wire really matter that much in terms of quality and performance of sound? Should I go with Copper, Silver, or copper w/ silver plating? 3. Should I stick with Cardas 1/4" plugs or go with a neutrik? WBT Solder or Cardas Eutectic solder? What types of heatshrink is good? I don't understand the ratios (3:1, etc). 4. Are there dramatic sonical differences between a 4 or 8 wire Litz braid pattern. 5. Am I missing any other protective/sound maximizing layers that would make the cable thicker and more complete? I plan on just putting 2 layers of techflex over the litz braided wire and heatshrinking the ends. 6. Am I crazy for trying to do this as a first DIY project?

are the hd 600 detachable? cables like the 650?

if it is not a detachable wire, then thats a project that required a bit of experience and shouldnt be taken head on by a inexperienced folk.

you soldering iron is too hot for what you are using it for. I use dual wall head shrink adhesive tubing for strain relief and durability whenever possible. You need a heat gun, as a lighter and hair drier are not suitable for such a project. for headphone recabling wire, I think wire guage can become overkill fairly easily. I seriously doubt you will experience ANY sonic difference on a headphone recable between a 4 litz braid and 8 braid cable. If anything the 8 braid will be too bulky and heavy for a headphone cable.

good luck on your project man.

 

[geforcewong]

The HD600 have detachable cables, so I don't think I'll be soldering anything near the drivers of the headphones. The only soldering I will be doing is the termination between the 1/4" plug to wire, and the wire to headphone interconnects(I think).

 

[rodentmacbeastie]

I went on a quest for the best cable a little while ago and tried everything form stock/ZU/Equinox to custom silver/copper and now gold alloy. I have used Bybee filters, Cardas 1/4", Neutrik 1/4", Sennheiser HD650 pins/plugs, teflon, cotton, techflex, heatshrink, custom plugs, and so on and so on!

I have settled on the best sounding cable I have ever heard. It consists of a Neutrik 1/4"(same as Equinox) followed by 22awg gold plated gold/silver/copper alloy wire in cotton insulation in a quad litz braid. They are terminated in custom made Sennheiser plugs. The foot of wire under my chin has been covered in heatshrik to keep the twisted last foot intact. The rest has been covered by two layers of techflex with the last 1/2" not covered/ cotton only.

Here is why. I found the gold alloy wire to represent the warmth and naturalness of copper with even more detail than silver. I think this is because the silver alone can sound thin and harsh on some material. The smoothness of the gold wire allows my ears to hear more detail. Not that more detail is present! I find this wire to be as limp as silver, not nearly as rigid as most solid copper. This translates to less microphonics in the cable.

The Neutrik sounded very similar to the Cardas to the point where I could here no difference and simply put Rhodium plating is MUCH more durable than gold. Rhodium is a member of the platinum family.

The cotton shielding is candle wick with a tin wire in it. I simly soddered the end of the gold wire cleanly to the tin and gently pulled it through. This takes patience, but not as much as feeding it through without the tin wire. Cotton is without a doubt the best sounding insulation and is not microphonic. That said I would have left the cable without techflex on it, but alas, I am hard on wires and had to protect it.

The braid used is a litz braid of four wires. Patience and time is all you need to make a wonderful braid. It does not have to be really tight either. Just let the wire fall into place and every foot or so pull the cable staight to align the braid. This will take a couple of hours, but is worht it.

The last 10" where the cable splits under your chin is heatshrink. Use the thinnest wall you can find to make it bendable. I used red for the right and black for the left. Dont heatshrink anything until you are sure that everything is in place.

The plugs were made by buying some modeling clay and carefully pushing the stock HD650 plugs into the clay. I made a dozen and picked the best two to use as molds. I then carefully cut out the pins from all of the plastic. Solder the gold wire to the pins and heatshrink them with about an inch of tubing from the place that the pins widen and down the wire. This gives you the ability to listen while you molds dry. More importantly in gives you somthing to hang on to when alligning the pins. The mold should be allowed to dry for a few days SLOWLY. When the molds are dry, place the pins into the holes made in your mold and mix some JB weld. Use some flat toothpicks to gently squees enough JB to fill the mold and let it sit for a day or two. I hope you remembered to put the ten or so inches of heat shrink on before you did this or you are screwed. When the plugs are dry, gently break the molds and let the plugs soak in water. This will allow you to wash the clay off. Now heatshrink the 10" pieces. Then get a bit of 4:1 heatshink with glue in it and slide it over the wide part of the plug and about two inches of wire and shrink it. This is quite thick heatshrink and makes good strain relief.

Now, slide techflex over the main cable in two layers. I use red first and then black over it. Looks real cool! I then heatshrink the end under your chin with the same 4:1 glued heatshink. Make sure to leave 1/2" of cotton exposed under the Y and above the techflex. This 1/2" of exposed cotton removes 95% of the microphonics of the rest of the cable(namely techflex). Heatshrink the 1/4" plug end with the same 4:1 glued stuff leaving some wire to work with when soldering your 1/4" plug.

Now, all you have to do is solder your favorite 1/4" plug and voila! You have eliminated all the pain I went through in research! This is one sexy looking cable too. I wish I had a camera to show you! It sounds amazing and will not corrode or tarnish because it is gold plated! If you want some wire, email the dudes at Z-Squared Audio. 50' should cost you around $1.25/foot. But hey, why stop there? You can get 100'+ for around $0.99/foot and make yourself an extension while you are at it. Don't leave any exposed cotton on the extension and you will have a durable 22' long setup.

I hope I have been more help that trouble. If you absolutely get stuck on the stigma that silver is best, then simply use silver instead of gold. I look back through history and find that gold is always sought after. Silver, 30 pieces for you!

David

 

[geforcewong]

Thanks for the input David. Lately, I've heard copper is better for warmth and long listening sessions. Maybe I should go with solid copper wire instead of the "harsh" sound of silver wire? Also heard gold attracts some kind of dust which may affect the contact area or something, which is why Cardas uses rhodium plating on their plugs.

Do you have any links on where to buy copper wire and how to Litz braid?

 

[palchiu]

wires you can go ebay, braiding Litz Wire links http://www.chimeralabs.com/diy_braid.html

Happy braiding~