World Domination Part Two - Making a Cable

[idc]

Just to confirm, I would turn this cable into a jack to mini jack cable and that would work.....

And just to confirm, I would turn this picture into one no more than 400px wide, so it doesn't bust out of the forum

- MOD

EDIT - sorry, I thought I might get away with 500 wide, apologies and thanks.

 

[jimdonnelly]

Yes, jack for the CDP and mini jack for the cans. Remember to insert more Angel's breath.

 

[idc]

One jack to mini jack cable, part of the Meteor range.........

 

[jimdonnelly]

Looking good. Can't wait to get my hands on it.

 

[idc]

This is my new headphone cable for the K702s. It is a cheat, using a jack to XLR from ThatCable. I originally bought it and took it apart to see how they work. I needed to swap the XLR with a mini XLR.

First I had to remove the strain relief from the mini XLR to stand any chance of fitting it. A stanley knife and pliers did the trick. Then I prepared the wires. I don't know why, but the cable is packed with string as well as the three wires.

Then, using the DMM, I figured out which wire goes to the tip, ring and ground. Different wires have different colours and phonos and jacks can be different too. It is not as easy as wiring a plug. You can see from the final picture the size difference. I need to finish it with heat shrink, instead of the electrical tape that I had.

Sound wise I cannot hear any difference between it and the standard AKG cable. But I have more volume range to play with.

 

[Anonymous]

Have you ever read War and Peace, idc? Brilliant book, fascinating for all its length.

 

[idc]

Tarquinh, has someone got a gun to your head forcing you to read threads you don't want to? This thread is nowhere near as big as PjPro's DIY ones. Anyway, thats it for a while, I have run out of supplies.

 

[Messiah]

I for one think it has been really good!

Keep up the good work

 

[PJPro]

idc:....This thread is nowhere near as big as PjPro's DIY ones....What have I got to do with it? :-o

I, for one, am glad to see that others are having a go at DIY.

 

[idc]

PJPro:idc:....This thread is nowhere near as big as PjPro's DIY ones....What have I got to do with it? :-o I, for one, am glad to see that others are having a go at DIY.

PJPro you are the inspiration for all of this, Tarquinh is just being argumentative, again!

 

[idc]

Messiah:

I for one think it has been really good!

Keep up the good work

Thanks. I want to make a proper headphone cable using the Proel cable I like when making an interconnect. Then, I want to try a USB.

 

[PJPro]

I think that having an understanding of the materials and construction involved in making an interconnect can only go some way to demystify cables. This can only be good. Hpowever, may I suggest that you consider taking the close up photos against a lighter background.....I find it difficult to make out the detail against the black

I'm looking forward to your high end range, perhaps using Kimber cable or similar with fancy pants plugs. Hificollection are worth considering as a source for ultra boutique components. I was thinking about a name I could suggest for this range and ran a search on "heavenly body". Hmm. I won't post be posting a link.

 

[idc]

Noted about the background for photos. There wont be a high end range, for a while anyway. Hificollective is a brilliant site, thanks.

 

[jimdonnelly]

Received my OOTW Meteor headphone cable today. I am off to listen to some music..........hope it is as good as the Solar Mk1 interconnect, which I am liking a lot.

 

[Anonymous]

Hello Mate,

Thanks for sending me the cable, looks good, will give it a whirl at the weekend, as the other guy says you need to go a bit up-market next with some WBT connectors and maybe some furutech cable? Something along those lines. Silver solder of course! As long as you stick to inter-connects and don't start making mains cables!

 

[idc]

Your welcome David. Please give a honest warts and all appraisal. I think there is an obvious flaw in the sound, it would be interesting if you and Jim are of the same opinion.

 

[jimdonnelly]

IDC

I have been using the Solar Mk1 interconnect all week. I must say I have enjoyed it very much. I stand by my first impressions in that it has good rhythmic bass but maybe not as lean as I first thought. The detail at the top end is pretty good and never sounds harsh. Midrange is the strong point with clear separation of instruments and a feeling of space. After a week of use I can find no obvious flaw. Maybe better electronics would highlight something?

You don't want it back do you?

The Meteor headphone cable is pretty decent, but the soundstage is very tight and the overall sound is a little hard and tiring. The basslines in Air's Moon Safari are not very warm and sounded a bit separate to the rest of the music. I'll keep trying it though.

Good work Mr IDC.

 

[idc]

Thanks for that Jim. You have not picked up on my issue with the Solar, so it could well be system dependent. (You are welcome to keep it). I hate to say this as well, but it may be burning in and the sound is changing!!!?

The Meteor sounded poor on my system for the same reasons you have stated, particularly the hard and tiring part. So I cannot recommend the Van Damme microphone cable.

I plan to make version of the Solar and Meteor where I use Proel cable for the Meteor and Van Damme for the Solar (so the opposite from before) and then do a comparison.

 

[idc]

The Meteor II using Proel microphone cable and Neutrik Rean XLR and jack.......

I had to cut the strain relief off to fit the cable and put some heatshrink on to cover the join........

I changed the larger blue strain relief for a smaller black one. Putting that with the metal band and the head of the XLR together is very fiddly........

 

[idc]

The jack is very well made and far simpler to put on.......

The top connection is the ring, the middle hole is the tip and the lower part the ground......

The finished article.................

 

[Anonymous]

just seen this thread. looks like lots of interesting happenings

 

[idc]

The Solar MkII with Van Damme cable.

I pealed apart the cable and removed the plastic inner bit. I decided to have a go with some heatshrink to keep the rest together.

This getting the cut lengths right before soldering. This is quite a thick cable with a stiff inner sheething over a more flexible outer sheeting. I hardly trim any cable back and only have tiny bits of wire to work with.

The wires are tinned and everything is in place to solder on the phonos

Phonos are on

The finished product, well maybe. Tbe heat shrink would not shrink with the hairdryer, which other heat shrink I have used did. So I used the soldering iron instead, but it curled up at the ends. So it may be cut off.

 

[PJPro]

You may need a heat gun. Not too expensive from DIY stores.

 

[idc]

My £1.99 cable stripper broke, so off to see about a new one and will look at a heat gun at the same time. Though I don't plan on making any more at the moment. Next I am going to see inside my amp and look at changing the valves.

 

[Blackdawn]

The Solar MkII with Van Damme cable.

Interesting thread. Does it matter what thickness cable you make interconnects from? Whats the usual range in AWG? Also another newbie question I have is why does it need an earth and why not just a signal like with loudspeaker cable? Sorry for silly questions. Have you experimented with different types of solder to see if you get better sound? What about trying different thicknesses or different phonos?