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I finally finished these cables this morning (it was cold, so I killed a little time before yard work).
The last photo is just for scale, that's a RSS265.
I'm not claiming superior sound, it was just an easy fun little side project.
Comments
https://diy.midwestaudio.club/discussion/1200/snake-oil-of-my-own/p1
I'm using lamp cord.
Comes with a free port tube
I will play - made some speaker cables with the Monoprice 4 conductor wire and a power cable with some wire from DH Labs.
Nicely done, Nick!
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I made these a few years back, four strands of #12. I actually made these, so that I would have grey wires to match my Stink Eyes project at MWAF.
@ugly_woofer what type of 12 gauge? Wanting to do something similar but with six strands and it's hard finding a stranded 12 gauge that's flexible enough to braid. The skins/covers really give the cables the look of a finished $$$ manufactured product.
It's XHHW wire, not hard to get, comes in any color, and should be available at any electrical supply store.
Some of mine:
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I did not make the white RCA cables. Everything else is my doing.
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I like your use of the bright colors
I'm trying to decide what techflex to use with the AECO rhodium nanners I bought. I have metal Amphenol (with glands) Speakon types for the other end.
https://www.amazon.com/Banana-ABP-1111R-Rhodium-Plating-Vacuum/dp/B01KUX0L3M/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=aeco+banana+plugs&qid=1603659562&sr=8-2
https://www.parts-express.com/amphenol-sp-4-fnl-loudspeaker-cable-connector-4-pole-metal-shell-with-pg-gland-strain-reli--092-3568
https://www.parts-express.com/belden-brilliance-1311a-12-awg-2c-underground-speaker-cable-cl3-in-wall-speaker-wire-100--102-1072
I was looking for splitters similar to JR's, and came up with hose clamps that look slick. Now I have to decide what cotton/PET combo techflex to use.
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Ben, I know you said that you like making cables, but you may want to call a help line. The line might be busy, as the rest of us probably need it too!
Hah! You are likely not wrong! The reason for all of those pictured before was for the entertainment center. Most of them are in use. The black braided are made for bridging the Crowns, equivalent of 9AWG together.
So- I'm thinking maybe this one:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Blue-White-Gray-PP-Cotton-PET-Expandable-Braided-Sleeve-Sheath-Cable-DIY-Modding-/174313727254
Or a white cotton or black carbon fiber.
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I think white cotton would get dirty too easily. I like the one you linked.
If I went white cotton, I'd have an open-weave white techflex atop of it.
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Your cables look great.
I use the southwire stuff from menards. I’m actually quite happy with its quality and will continue to use it as my go to.
I've seen some super thin and flexible 75∩ coax used for rca and digital cables. Someone have information on this stuff?
Belden 83264, look it up. Super overkill for the relatively low frequency of spdif, and an RCA connector isn't exactly a 75 ohm high frequency connector either.
I know XLRs are different, but Matt always liked the 110 ohm AES/EBU Belden 1800F cable. Nice and flexible!!
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The whole industry should have moved to XLR some 20-30 years ago. It baffles me that we still use single ended RCA today, a connector that wasn't even designed for inter-equioment connections, and makes connection to the signal wire before the ground. Terrible.
XLR, even mini XLR are great, easy to assemble and all the XLR cables I've purchased are servicable too, no moulded plastic ends. Connector ends are cheap and nice flexible microphone cable is also cheap and readily available.
I have only used xlr for balanced. Can xlr be used for single ended? I assumed that balanced had a price to pay in more complex and expensive circuitry but provided lower noise over larger run.
For eg, a stereo amp can be used in stereo single ended or as mono balanced with of course twice the wattage per channel but at double the price.
So are we talking about xlr being superior with flexible and cheaper wire or it's more of an balanced vs single ended?
I have very limited knowledge about wires and interconnects and even lesser in terms of what works and what is snake oil. I tend to go with ofc copper in increasing higher guage, of course with an eye on cost and I have yet to dress up any wires, but would like to and would also like it to have some sonic ability rather than just looking pretty ( though pretty is good too).
You can simply short one pin to ground on XLR to make it single ended, but that sort of defeats the purpose...Op-amps are pennies when purchased in bulk, the added cost should be negligible for anything above the low end "big box" models, and the performance benefits are obvious, so why do we still buy $1000 equipment with single ended interconnections?
The RCA problem is a large susceptibility to ground loops. Most consumer electronics ends up using floating power supplies to avoid issues here. And of course the "bzz!" you get when you plug and unplug RCA while the equipment is running, connecting signal before the common connection is just bad design. Getting off-topic though, but DIYAudio has a great documentation of equipment grounding. A lengthy read but good information:
https://www.diyaudio.com/forums/diyaudio-com-articles/163575-audio-component-grounding-interconnection.html
Finished these for a friend/customer:
He is pretty happy...
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What is the purpose of the oak dowels ?
home-brew version of blingy cable-pants. They are the splitters.
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Finished my set today... finally. The individually sheathed nanner-leads caused more troubles than I thought they would. I had to oblong the dowel entrance to get them to slide through. That took some thinking and a dremel. I scorched the oak splitters on this set. The nanners are rhodium plated BFA-Z types made by CMC, about $23 for 10 pair. They have a solid pin down the middle so you can't snap them off, and they have tight contact in both 4mm and 4.1mm posts. Amphenol Speakons with 'glands' for the amp end.
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Another pair...
17' for events, black/silver cotton/PET weave, 10/2awg GearIt marine cable. The 10' wasn't cutting it last year, and I broke a set of nanners. This longer length should prevent that with more slack. Nick made the splitters. Same BFA-Z bananas.
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Those look really nice, Ben. Giving me the itch to build some fine veil-lifting wonders myself.