looking at diy cable

boza

Super Member
Hi everybody

ive been looking in to makeing some diy cables and was just wondering if anyone has seen or used D.H labs cable. Made in U.S.A looks to be good quality cable at a good price.
Just wonderd if anyone had used them and what you guys think. Is it a good choice.

Thanks.
 
I've heard good things about DH Cable, and their prices certainly are attractive. I, however, have no experience with it, but would have no qualms whatsoever.
 
It's good cable. Much of it (not all) is silver clad copper which has a sonic signature that you may or may not like. But, I would not hesitate to give it a try if I were you as DH Labs does make high quality cable products.
I highly recommend the KLE RCA's if you are making interconnects. The KLE's are a little strange to work with, but they sure do sound good! (no affiliation). I use some AQ bulk cable (solid core - coax) and solder on the KLE's (Copper Harmony) and it makes an awesome sounding set of IC's. I only have one set of "other" IC's in my system now. That set is some Cardas Neutral Reference RCA cables that (for whatever reason) just hit the magic mark between my DAC and Pre.
Have fun, building your own cables opens up a lot of new avenues - including custom lengths to suit your rack:) Just be sure to get some good solder (like TRT Wonder Solder), because not all solders sound the same.
 
Thanks for the reply's
i was looking at the silver power cable looks realy good by the time i get quality plugs looks like it would make a top notch cable for a good price. The speaker cable allso looks to be good value ill have a look at there ic cable. Thanks
 
Sounds like a good idea. I've not used their power cables, but I'm sure its good stuff, and we all know what a difference a good power cable can make :)
 
I know nothing about their power cables or those from any other sources but for audio cables, DH Labs is a solid company with a good reputation of quality and being relatively affordable, considering what you are getting. I use DH Labs with my Eton-based music-only rig and have for about 12 years. It replaced Kimber Hero and 8TC.
 
I have their speaker cable and have made some interconnects as well. Love them all. As much as I change my speakers out I need the flexibility of not only spkr cable length but interconnects as well. Different amp setups for different speakers!
 
I have some DH Labs interconnects and I'm very happy.
As for DIY power cables, you might wanna check out Venhaus Audio, too. I've used his recipes on some stuff and have been more than satisfied with the results
 
Hello again
ive orderd all the connector's / sleave / heat shrink and dh lab silver sonic rrference power cable. Looks like it will take a while for it all to get hear i will post some picks when i have all the parts. Thanks for all the info guy's hopeing this will be the start of me making up all my cables in the future
Thanks again
 
i had my iec connectors arrive this morning they came sooner than expected so decided to use them to improve the power cord's connection that i already use. as you can see they use kimber cable conductors. iv ordered another for when i get the rest of the parts to build a power cable.
 

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My first DIY power cable
 

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nice job on the cables. Your thoughts?

Thanks
Seems to be doing a good job so far. I made it to go on my plug board to run my components. My amp plug's straight in the wall. I've read on another thread that it can take a good few hour to bed in but it definitely seems to have a calming affect on my cd player as though its relaxed and has an easy flow to the music and a very quiet background. So so far so good.:)
 
Lookin' good! :thmbsp:

Thanks.
I looked on a lot of sites' to see how they should be wired for the active screen but I asked advice on another thread here on ak an pete-mac gave me some good advice which I followed and it's definitely cleaned up the sound a lot.
 
:music:I took all my mains cables off today and put my DIY cable against my commercial power cables just hooking them up to my Arcam cd player to see how it compared and. I will be making my own from now on. It cost me less than any of my other power cables to put together and its the most effective. Really pleased with it it just goes to show what a little research and a little time can achieve
 
Just wondered if anyone else is building any cables at the moment. Not just power cables but interconnects or speaker cables would love to hear, see, what you are all putting together and your experience with different cable types and what connecter's are good to use and easy to work with.

Martin
 
Just wondered if anyone else is building any cables at the moment. Not just power cables but interconnects or speaker cables would love to hear, see, what you are all putting together and your experience with different cable types and what connecter's are good to use and easy to work with.

Martin


Hi Martin,

I've been dabbling with interconnects for the past six months or so, having heard the EXCELLENT solid-core interconnects made by Aurealis Audio here in Australia (no affiliation!).

Initially, my components of choice were 24AWG solid core pure copper or pure silver, teflon tubing, techflex-style sheathing, and either the KLE Copper Harmony or Aurealis 'Star' RCA connectors.





The Aurealis 'Star' RCAs (available from various ebay sellers these days for around $30 for four) are basically a copy of the old ETI Eichmann RCAs, featuring low mass tellurium copper conductors. They are very easy to solder (as are the KLEs).




Some of the first interconnects that I made up (the black sheath is pure copper, the grey sheath is milspec silver-plated solid core copper):




This is the first pure silver cable that I made:



I note that none of these cables had any shielding whatsoever and performed flawlessly in my system with no induced noise.


The latest cable was constructed using 26AWG OCC silver from partsconnexion for the signal wires, and 24AWG copper for a drain wire which is grounded at one end of the interconnects only (delineated by a black band of heatshrink). The wires run inside oversized teflon tubes in a fairly loose three-wire braid. I didn't apply any techflex sheathing on this set of interconnects. I really, really like their sound! Going from a good quality copper to good quality silver interconnect is certainly an eye-opener - superb clarity but no harshness.








I've also made a USB cable with solid silver data lines, a separate copper ground, and no +5V connection as my DAC does not require it.

 
Oops... forgot to mention... solid core speaker cables are also my preference.

My current ones are four runs of 18AWG copper and four runs of 24AWG copper per speaker.

I've constructed them in a bi-wire configuration with a pair of 18AWGs going to the positive and negative of each woofer (effectively 15AWG) and a pair of 24AWG going to the positive and negative of each tweeter (effectively 21AWG).

The cables are only 2.5m long so this is most adequate.

They sound lovely! I much prefer the sound over stranded copper cables.

I'm now on the hunt for more 'exotic' materials to replicate the cables. OCC copper/silver is pretty expensive, so I might just stick with solid core silver plated milspec copper. We shall see...
 
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