phidauex
High Technology Hippies
I thought I'd contribute a little DIY how-to, for your reading pleasure.
I used to work in pro audio (front of house, monitor, and live recording), and one thing about pro audio is that it uses a LOT of interconnects. Plus, bands steal them, you leave them at the performance hall, they get run over by a cart, etc. You could buy new ones all the time, or you can get good at making them.
I thought I'd share my basic unbalanced interconnect recipe, since there has been a renued interest in discussing cables.
These cables are meant to be durable, have a solid connection, reject noise, have as flat a frequency response as possible, be a reasonable price, and be relatively easy to make. They are not meant to lift veils off your speaker, add sparkle, or improve your love life. They are first and formost, a working man's cable. But when people are paying thousands for you to provide their sound, they demand high quality, so they have to be good at that too.
I like them because they feel good in the hand, are very durable, and are cheap to make. Plus, they reject noise in a very satisfactory manner, and sound as good as I've ever heard a cable sound (but beware, I don't usually hear differences in cables, unless something is wrong with them).
The cable is Canare Star Quad, specifically L-4E6S. Star Quad cable has four 24 gauge stranded OFC conductors inside, two blue, and two white, all in a 'quadruple helix' twist. Each has its own insulator. Around all this is a braided copper shield with >95% coverage, and then a matte outer insulator that comes in a number of delightful colors. It is 6mm in diameter.
The connectors are Canare F-09 RCA connectors with springy strain relief. They are a narrow profile, which I like, because they fit even my more cramped components, and the brass body covers the 'leaves' of the RCA outer conductor, to protect them. The signal conductor is solid brass, and all connective points are gold plated. They also have a nice crimping clamp inside. The F-10 connectors are nice too, they are a bit fatter, and have a bit nicer machining on the leaves. They also cost a little more. They would both make good choices.
My only other addition is some red and clear heat shrink tube, and some printouts from my computer. I don't use Tech-flex, though you are welcome to do so! It is nice stuff, but doesn't really add anything but sex appeal to your cables. Even in a pro environment, the Canare Star Quad had plenty of durability. Of course, don't let me stop you! Its not that expensive, it comes in a gillion colors, and feels good in the hand.
On to the cables!
Star Quad is nice, because there are a lot of ways to use it. However, for unbalanced interconnects, the best way is to tie the two blue conductors together, and use them as the signal ground, then tie the two white conductors together, and use them as the signal. Then connect the shield to the signal ground at one end only (preventing a ground loop).
For balanced XLR connections, tie the shield to pin 1, the two whites to pin 2 (as the positive signal line) and the blues to pin 3 (as the negative signal line). Leave the connector chassis floating. In this balanced configuration, you can run low level signals hundreds of feet, along power cables, and still get a crystal clear output. I'd put it against any other cable for this configuation.
Noise rejection isn't so good with unbalanced interconnects, but star quad still helps. The double twisted pairs results in a cable with vanishingly low inductance and series resistance, though modestly high capacitance (compared to other cables). However, for an interconnect, I feel that low inductance is more important than low capacitance. The low inductance and full shield means it rejects RF and EM interference quite nicely. Being nearly silent around SCR type dimmers (a massive source of interference) is one of Star Quad's claims to fame.
Here are the connectors, and the cable.
Slide the pieces over the cable. If you forget this step, you'll be mad at yourself!! I've slipped over a clear piece of heat shrink with a slip of paper from my computer under it. It says 'source', because conventionally, the side of the interconnect that has its ground tied to the shield goes to the source of the audio. If you mix it up, its not a real problem, but this is the best practice. Then is a piece of red heat shrink tube, to indicate that this is the right channel of a stereo pair. Then the connector chassis, and the springy strain relief.
I don't cover my connectors in heat shrink, though some people like to. I buy the cheaper 2:1 heat shrink, which doesn't shrink enough for that process, and it makes it hard to disassemble the interconnects later for reconfiguration. Also, it makes them wider, and I bought narrow for a reason. But again, if you like the look, don't let me stop you!
Also shown on the table, the core of the connector.
Strip back about a half inch of the main insulator. Pull the shield down a bit, and snip it down the center. Pull off any stray bits of shield, and twist the remaining shield around to the side.
Strip back most of the blues, and twist them to the shield. Then strip back just a little bit of the whites, and twist them together.
The blues/shield bundle will go through the hole in the connector, and the white bundle will go to the center conductor.
I put the cable into place, and give the crimp a squeeze with my fingers to hold it steady. Place the white wires into place, and solder them in. I use basic 60/40 rosin core solder.
Note, a 10$ hobby vice from http://www.harborfreighttools.com makes this job about a million times easier.
Flip it over, fold the shield/blue wire bundle backwards and flush, and then solder it on, make sure you get a good solid adhesion to the chassis.
Crimp down the cable grabby crimp with some pliers. Don't go nuts, or it'll tear through the insulation, just give it a gentle squeeze from a few angles so it gets a good grip.
Not shown, a small wrap of electrical tape around the crimp helps the springy strain relief stay in place without wiggling.
Once they are soldered, gently bend the chassis if necessary to make it straight, and then slide the outer body up, and screw it into place. To get it firm, I grab the center pin with some duck bill mini-pliers (with no teeth), so I can get a grip. But don't go too tight, just enough to hold it in place.
Heat the heat shrink tubing to cause it to, uh, shrink. I use a lighter (very gently), but a heat gun is the most appropriate tool. The 'source' label is down the cable a bit, to keep it from interfering with the cable flexibility at the end.
There, one side is done!
The next side is a bit different... This time we aren't tying the shield to the blue wires. Strip back the same amount of cable as before, but this time, snip off all the shield. A quick wrap of electrical tape prevents any remaining bits of shield from making connection.
Solder the connection together as before, making sure you don't melt off the electrical tape you carefully laid in place.
Crimp the connector, twist on the body (that I hope you remembered to slide over before soldering!!), and enjoy!
A finished 2 meter pair. They aren't the sexiest cables in the world, but they have a good design, good parts, and they'll treat you right.
Final specs:
Capacitance: 150 pF / meter
DC Resistance: < .098 ohms / meter
Attenuation: .003 V / meter
Group Delay: 5.9 nS / meter
Nominal Impedance: 44 ohms
I got my parts from Markertek, http://www.markertek.com, a broadcast and pro audio supply house.
The connectors were 2.19$ each, and the cable was $0.36 per foot. The final price, for a 1 meter stereo pair: $10.92
The heat shrink I already had around, but it is just a few dollars for a four foot section, so just pennies per interconnect.
How do they sound??? Well.. They don't! Not to me, at least. They are very clean, reject noise very well, and make the component sound like I think it should. Really cheap cables sound bad, these cables sound like nothing. Like a cable should.
Will it beat fancy cables costing gillions more? I dunno! But it does have some good solid engineering behind it, so I think it has a least a fighting chance. These connectors and cables are used by many high end manufacturers, and are sold by the gillions to the more lazy pro audio companies. Quite a number of HiFi interconnects use the same cable as well, hidden beneath the pretty tech-flex.
I'm going to submit a pair to the Cable Swap, as well, so people can give them a try alongside their other cables, and alongside the other fine cables in the Swap.
Hope you've enjoyed reading my incredibly long winded explanation of how I make bits of wire on my coffee table while watching a movie (made 10 interconnects during "Howl's Moving Castle", so not too bad).
peace,
sam
I used to work in pro audio (front of house, monitor, and live recording), and one thing about pro audio is that it uses a LOT of interconnects. Plus, bands steal them, you leave them at the performance hall, they get run over by a cart, etc. You could buy new ones all the time, or you can get good at making them.
I thought I'd share my basic unbalanced interconnect recipe, since there has been a renued interest in discussing cables.
These cables are meant to be durable, have a solid connection, reject noise, have as flat a frequency response as possible, be a reasonable price, and be relatively easy to make. They are not meant to lift veils off your speaker, add sparkle, or improve your love life. They are first and formost, a working man's cable. But when people are paying thousands for you to provide their sound, they demand high quality, so they have to be good at that too.
I like them because they feel good in the hand, are very durable, and are cheap to make. Plus, they reject noise in a very satisfactory manner, and sound as good as I've ever heard a cable sound (but beware, I don't usually hear differences in cables, unless something is wrong with them).
The cable is Canare Star Quad, specifically L-4E6S. Star Quad cable has four 24 gauge stranded OFC conductors inside, two blue, and two white, all in a 'quadruple helix' twist. Each has its own insulator. Around all this is a braided copper shield with >95% coverage, and then a matte outer insulator that comes in a number of delightful colors. It is 6mm in diameter.
The connectors are Canare F-09 RCA connectors with springy strain relief. They are a narrow profile, which I like, because they fit even my more cramped components, and the brass body covers the 'leaves' of the RCA outer conductor, to protect them. The signal conductor is solid brass, and all connective points are gold plated. They also have a nice crimping clamp inside. The F-10 connectors are nice too, they are a bit fatter, and have a bit nicer machining on the leaves. They also cost a little more. They would both make good choices.
My only other addition is some red and clear heat shrink tube, and some printouts from my computer. I don't use Tech-flex, though you are welcome to do so! It is nice stuff, but doesn't really add anything but sex appeal to your cables. Even in a pro environment, the Canare Star Quad had plenty of durability. Of course, don't let me stop you! Its not that expensive, it comes in a gillion colors, and feels good in the hand.
On to the cables!
Star Quad is nice, because there are a lot of ways to use it. However, for unbalanced interconnects, the best way is to tie the two blue conductors together, and use them as the signal ground, then tie the two white conductors together, and use them as the signal. Then connect the shield to the signal ground at one end only (preventing a ground loop).
For balanced XLR connections, tie the shield to pin 1, the two whites to pin 2 (as the positive signal line) and the blues to pin 3 (as the negative signal line). Leave the connector chassis floating. In this balanced configuration, you can run low level signals hundreds of feet, along power cables, and still get a crystal clear output. I'd put it against any other cable for this configuation.
Noise rejection isn't so good with unbalanced interconnects, but star quad still helps. The double twisted pairs results in a cable with vanishingly low inductance and series resistance, though modestly high capacitance (compared to other cables). However, for an interconnect, I feel that low inductance is more important than low capacitance. The low inductance and full shield means it rejects RF and EM interference quite nicely. Being nearly silent around SCR type dimmers (a massive source of interference) is one of Star Quad's claims to fame.
Here are the connectors, and the cable.
Slide the pieces over the cable. If you forget this step, you'll be mad at yourself!! I've slipped over a clear piece of heat shrink with a slip of paper from my computer under it. It says 'source', because conventionally, the side of the interconnect that has its ground tied to the shield goes to the source of the audio. If you mix it up, its not a real problem, but this is the best practice. Then is a piece of red heat shrink tube, to indicate that this is the right channel of a stereo pair. Then the connector chassis, and the springy strain relief.
I don't cover my connectors in heat shrink, though some people like to. I buy the cheaper 2:1 heat shrink, which doesn't shrink enough for that process, and it makes it hard to disassemble the interconnects later for reconfiguration. Also, it makes them wider, and I bought narrow for a reason. But again, if you like the look, don't let me stop you!
Also shown on the table, the core of the connector.
Strip back about a half inch of the main insulator. Pull the shield down a bit, and snip it down the center. Pull off any stray bits of shield, and twist the remaining shield around to the side.
Strip back most of the blues, and twist them to the shield. Then strip back just a little bit of the whites, and twist them together.
The blues/shield bundle will go through the hole in the connector, and the white bundle will go to the center conductor.
I put the cable into place, and give the crimp a squeeze with my fingers to hold it steady. Place the white wires into place, and solder them in. I use basic 60/40 rosin core solder.
Note, a 10$ hobby vice from http://www.harborfreighttools.com makes this job about a million times easier.
Flip it over, fold the shield/blue wire bundle backwards and flush, and then solder it on, make sure you get a good solid adhesion to the chassis.
Crimp down the cable grabby crimp with some pliers. Don't go nuts, or it'll tear through the insulation, just give it a gentle squeeze from a few angles so it gets a good grip.
Not shown, a small wrap of electrical tape around the crimp helps the springy strain relief stay in place without wiggling.
Once they are soldered, gently bend the chassis if necessary to make it straight, and then slide the outer body up, and screw it into place. To get it firm, I grab the center pin with some duck bill mini-pliers (with no teeth), so I can get a grip. But don't go too tight, just enough to hold it in place.
Heat the heat shrink tubing to cause it to, uh, shrink. I use a lighter (very gently), but a heat gun is the most appropriate tool. The 'source' label is down the cable a bit, to keep it from interfering with the cable flexibility at the end.
There, one side is done!
The next side is a bit different... This time we aren't tying the shield to the blue wires. Strip back the same amount of cable as before, but this time, snip off all the shield. A quick wrap of electrical tape prevents any remaining bits of shield from making connection.
Solder the connection together as before, making sure you don't melt off the electrical tape you carefully laid in place.
Crimp the connector, twist on the body (that I hope you remembered to slide over before soldering!!), and enjoy!
A finished 2 meter pair. They aren't the sexiest cables in the world, but they have a good design, good parts, and they'll treat you right.
Final specs:
Capacitance: 150 pF / meter
DC Resistance: < .098 ohms / meter
Attenuation: .003 V / meter
Group Delay: 5.9 nS / meter
Nominal Impedance: 44 ohms
I got my parts from Markertek, http://www.markertek.com, a broadcast and pro audio supply house.
The connectors were 2.19$ each, and the cable was $0.36 per foot. The final price, for a 1 meter stereo pair: $10.92
The heat shrink I already had around, but it is just a few dollars for a four foot section, so just pennies per interconnect.
How do they sound??? Well.. They don't! Not to me, at least. They are very clean, reject noise very well, and make the component sound like I think it should. Really cheap cables sound bad, these cables sound like nothing. Like a cable should.
Will it beat fancy cables costing gillions more? I dunno! But it does have some good solid engineering behind it, so I think it has a least a fighting chance.
These connectors and cables are used by many high end manufacturers, and are sold by the gillions to the more lazy pro audio companies. Quite a number of HiFi interconnects use the same cable as well, hidden beneath the pretty tech-flex.I'm going to submit a pair to the Cable Swap, as well, so people can give them a try alongside their other cables, and alongside the other fine cables in the Swap.
Hope you've enjoyed reading my incredibly long winded explanation of how I make bits of wire on my coffee table while watching a movie (made 10 interconnects during "Howl's Moving Castle", so not too bad).
peace,
sam
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