Author Topic: Make your own cables  (Read 27365 times)

Offline Falcon

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Make your own cables
« on: November 28, 2009, 12:27:53 AM »
Anybody make their own cables? I/C or speaker? What wire are you using on I/C cables? I want to build my own, but not sure what wire to use, thinking of silver.
Any thoughts?

Offline OCCD

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Re: Make your own cables
« Reply #1 on: November 28, 2009, 12:30:53 AM »
As Bob would say..."try it"  I would start with copper and go from there.
Do you want ants? Because THAT'S HOW YOU GET ANTS!

bmwr75

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Re: Make your own cables
« Reply #2 on: November 29, 2009, 04:00:23 PM »
Yes and yes.

http://www.6moons.com/audioreviews/whitelightning/moonshine.html

Have been happy with the results.


Offline paden501

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Re: Make your own cables
« Reply #3 on: November 30, 2009, 11:23:51 AM »
Hey bmwr75,

That Patio Cord that was used for the DIY setup, does it use solid copper conductors or were they strands?

Thanks,

~Matt
--- My System ---
Front L/R: Polk Audio SDA-1C w/ Modified xovers
Amp: Carver TFM-24
CD: Jolida JD100a
HTR/Pre: B&K Reference 20
Turntable:Pioneer PL-516 W/ Shure M97xe
Surrounds -Polk Audio Monitor 4As

bmwr75

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Re: Make your own cables
« Reply #4 on: November 30, 2009, 08:08:55 PM »
strands

Offline paden501

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Re: Make your own cables
« Reply #5 on: December 07, 2009, 08:57:30 AM »
Just made myself a set of these last night.  They're still far from broken in, but I will say that THEY WORK!

Full review to follow in the next few weeks.

~Matt
--- My System ---
Front L/R: Polk Audio SDA-1C w/ Modified xovers
Amp: Carver TFM-24
CD: Jolida JD100a
HTR/Pre: B&K Reference 20
Turntable:Pioneer PL-516 W/ Shure M97xe
Surrounds -Polk Audio Monitor 4As

Offline Reverend

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Re: Make your own cables
« Reply #6 on: December 13, 2009, 11:37:22 PM »
I have a 500' spool of copper 14gauge wire.  Just ordered a spool of braided sleeves and shrink tubing.  Going to give this a shot.

bmwr75

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Re: Make your own cables
« Reply #7 on: December 14, 2009, 05:10:39 PM »
Just made myself a set of these last night.  They're still far from broken in, but I will say that THEY WORK!

Full review to follow in the next few weeks.

Not sure I abide by speaker cables requiring break in time (am also skeptical about high dollar power cords and interconnects, magic dots, etc).  But will be interested to read your impressions.  Fun project wasn't it!?

Offline Kingman

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Re: Make your own cables
« Reply #8 on: December 14, 2009, 06:23:32 PM »
Sounds interesting...what ended up the price per meter cost???
IN REALITY IT ONLY MATTERS WHAT IT SOUNDS LIKE TO YOU!!!!!

bmwr75

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Re: Make your own cables
« Reply #9 on: December 14, 2009, 07:07:27 PM »
A 40' Woods Yard Master extension cord costs about $8 at Walmart.  That is about $0.65/meter.  The rest of the costs is for terminators (i.e., banana plugs, spades, etc.) and heat shrink tubing.  The tubing might run $1-2 per pair of wires.  Of course you can spend as little or as much as you want on terminators. 

Offline Kingman

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Re: Make your own cables
« Reply #10 on: December 14, 2009, 07:22:39 PM »
Thanks for the info!!! I would not of thought of using that wire from Wally world.  8)
IN REALITY IT ONLY MATTERS WHAT IT SOUNDS LIKE TO YOU!!!!!

Offline paden501

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Re: Make your own cables
« Reply #11 on: December 15, 2009, 11:36:49 AM »
The cables sound great.  I myself was not expecting any difference in the sound but I was stunned to see that there was a difference (even my wife noticed). 

They sounded much more 'natural' than the Monster cable 16ga lamp cord that I was using before.  My system has always been very bright and forward in the tweeter range (due largely to the SL2000 tweeters in stock SDAs) but these cables brought the highs down and the mids forward a bit, which really helped. 

For the first couple of hours they sounded a little hollow (almost as if the sound stage opened up too much!) but the sound came in a bit as the cables broke in.

I also made an SDA interconnect cable (goes between the speakers for the SDA affect) from this cable and that added A LOT to the 'SDA magic'.

All in all, I probably have about $30 invested in a pair of 8' speaker cables and a 10' SDA cable.  I'll be investing another $30 into interconnect cables and a Phono RCA at some point also.  I used solder-on gold plated banana connectors from parts-express instead of the ones recommended in the article (I couldn't find those at P-E and I was placing an order for other stuff there anyway). P-E does have the interconnects that the article recommends.

It's important that you get the 'Woods yard Master Patio Cord', not the generic brand extention cord that is next to it on the shelf.  The packaging looks similar but the quality is not the same!   I almost fell for that when I was shopping.
~Matt
--- My System ---
Front L/R: Polk Audio SDA-1C w/ Modified xovers
Amp: Carver TFM-24
CD: Jolida JD100a
HTR/Pre: B&K Reference 20
Turntable:Pioneer PL-516 W/ Shure M97xe
Surrounds -Polk Audio Monitor 4As

bmwr75

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Re: Make your own cables
« Reply #12 on: December 15, 2009, 05:16:08 PM »
Thanks for the review.  I'll never spend big bucks on speaker wire again.

Offline Reverend

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Re: Make your own cables
« Reply #13 on: December 21, 2009, 10:51:08 AM »
I made a set of speaker cables the other weekend.  I used a pair from the music direct catalog as sort of a template.  I also did a good amount of research as to what to use ie; strands vs. solids.  All brands seem to vary on this point.  I lucked out and actually found the cable manufacturer that provides pre-made cable for one of the more expensive brands.  They're using a magentically shielded 4 conductor wire, much like you would find on a dryer cord.  One brand is using a 6 conductor wire with the inner wires at 20 gauge.  I settled on the 4 conductor wire with 16 gauge inner solid copper wires.

Materials for 10' pair:

Spool of 4 conductor 16guage inner cables (manufacturer from above, I bought a 100' spool)
(2)Sets of 4 gold plated banana terminals (ebay, company in Japan, very nice hand made)
Spool of heat resistant expandable 1/2" diameter braided wire cover, black with gray print (different manufacturer, comes in multiple colors and designs)
Pack of random color 1/4" inner, 6" in length shrink tubing
Pack of black 1/2" inner, 6" lenth, shrink tubing
Heat Gun

Method:

I cut the cables to (2) 10' lengths.
Cut off the outer casing of the wire on each end 6" exposing the 4 wires.
Cut the expandable braided cable cover to (2) 9' lengths and slid it onto the cable.
Cut the 1/2" inner shrink tubing to 1" in length and slid onto the top of the braided cover on each end.
Took two of exposed wires and twisted them making a tight spiral pattern, then slid a 6" length of 1/4" tubing over the wires.
Add a banana connector to the end and crimped them together.  Slight dab of solder to each end of the crimp.
Made sure the wires were still perfectly twisted (spiral), shrink the tubing over the crimped area to the end of the exposed cable.  Repeat for all other exposed wires.
(Had to cut the shrink tubing slightly to cover the crimped area but not the plug itself).
Once exposed wires are complete, lined up the 1/2" shrink tubing on each end to be half over the braided cover and half over the 2 sets of exposed wires and sealed with heat.  Repeat on both ends.

Results:

Wow, they look awesome and sound incredible.  We did some A/B testing using a NAD 3150, a pair of Tannoy 6.5 bookshelf speakers, and a Ipod as the source.  We used as comparison some crappy 18 gauge wire from Radio Shack vs. our newly created wire.  What a difference!

Of course like a dumbass I didn't take pictures and my buddy who helped is testing them out at the moment.  We're going to try some other materials and do some further testing, etc... I'll have another pair or two to bring to the shop after the holidays.  
« Last Edit: December 21, 2009, 02:42:58 PM by RevAmish »

Offline paden501

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Re: Make your own cables
« Reply #14 on: December 21, 2009, 10:58:07 AM »
Sweet.

I'm looking forward to seeing some photos.

~Matt
--- My System ---
Front L/R: Polk Audio SDA-1C w/ Modified xovers
Amp: Carver TFM-24
CD: Jolida JD100a
HTR/Pre: B&K Reference 20
Turntable:Pioneer PL-516 W/ Shure M97xe
Surrounds -Polk Audio Monitor 4As