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IC's that LOOK as good as they sound in 30 miinutes

qboneus

qboneus

Senior Member
DIY IC's that LOOK as good as they sound in 30 minutes

Having built tons of IC's over the years that sound like world beaters but just look like homemade IC's I decided to build some IC's that LOOK as good as they sound, and they sound phenomenal!!
ICs006.jpg

tell me what you think...
These Ic's started out as just another mundane looking, but excellent performing coil of Mogami Star quad 2534.
cabledressing002.jpg

Last time I was shopping markertek, i noticed that they have a great variety of PET expandable flexible tubing in a wide variety of colors..
cabledressing003.jpg

after about 2-3 minutes I have managed to inch my 6 foot length into the PET
cabledressing006.jpg


I cut my IC free of the roll leaving about 2 " excess which I slightly melt the ends of to stop from fraying and begin on it's mate..
cabledressing007.jpg

within 5 minutes of starting I have a nice pair, both with some excess PET hanging over the end of the star quad.
cabledressing011.jpg

In less than 10 minutes I have answered the phone twice,:smilemad: and completed two pairs of IC wires ready to be trimmed and terminated.
cabledressing008.jpg

here is a close-up of how the PET looks on the wire..
cabledressing010.jpg

cabledressing009.jpg

this is the PET I used, it was very reasonably priced.
cabledressing013.jpg

trim the pet back to 1/4 inch of the end of the star quad, and then I pre perforate the wires jacket so it is easy to strip and use adhesive heatshrink to fasten the tubing in place on my wire, one piece below the PET tube and another smaller piece of adhesive HS on top.
ICs01.jpg

Then strip off the jacket of the cable and seperate the conductors and shield.
THEN strip off the inner conductors and twist the corresponding conductors together.
ICs04.jpg

I lightly tin the conductors together.
ICs03.jpg

then insert my cable into my rca jacks and begin the quick process of soldering..
ICs02.jpg

unfortunately it was at this level that my camera began to have issues with lowlight close-up images so here is the completed end in good light
 
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remember to attach shield at source end and float shield on opposite end of cable set.
I showed the floated connection earlier; this is the shield or source side wiring.

ICsshield.jpg

ICsshield2.jpg



Next should be to get on ohm meter and be sure we didn't just create shorting plugs by ohming between the poles on your rca jacks for both sets
ICstest.jpg


ICstest2.jpg


ICs010.jpg


Good to GO!!!!
time for some tunes!

and here's a couple more of the finished product within 1/2 hour of start!

ICs008.jpg

ICs07.jpg

ICs09.jpg

ICs006.jpg



My camera crapped out at the fine details indoors but I'll make another tomorrow and try to get better light on the final connections..
off to listen now.
cheers,
tal
 
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They look awesome. If you don't mind the question, and I don't know anything about mogami cost, what type of price for the DIY ICs?
 
m4rz said:
They look awesome. If you don't mind the question, and I don't know anything about mogami cost, what type of price for the DIY ICs?
Click to expand...
$1.10 per foot at markertek
http://www.markertek.com/Cables-Con...Cable/Mogami-Wire-Cable-Corp/W2534-00-E.xhtml





dokblues said:
Those look amazing! Where did you get and which rca ends are those?
Click to expand...
http://wbt.de/index.php?id=77&backPID=77&tt_products=141
WBT 0152 Cu
:thmbsp:
I have an account with WBT so I bought them directly from wbt.

Thanks for the compliments!
hope this inspires more to build some, they are great!! (even without the uber-ends)
cheers,
tal
 
Very nice. I need to re-terminate some speaker cables I have here. Do you have a good recommendation for where to get spade terminations and heat shrink tubing?
 
I will be the odd man out. They look terrific and may sound great, but with those plugs you have constructed death grip audio cables. And very likely you will rip apart some of the RCA jacks on your gear, or at the very least cause some of the solder connections where the descenders on the backsides of the jacks join with the circuit board to tear loose.

Fred
 
At my repair facility, we have seen hundreds of machines, many of them high-end such as Krell, where death-grip audio cables have damaged the RCA jacks. Almost to the last customer, the owners of these machines swear by their death-grip cables. And yet, how can a cable be good if in a high percentage of cases it damages the jacks and causes signal cutting out?

Your following quote nails it: "Through the collect chuck device which works like a chuck of a drill machine the plug’s outer contact once inserted clamps firmly to the RCA socket. The maximum contact pressure provides not only a secure connection, but also minimizes the transition resistance." That's the sine quo non of a death-grip cable, pandering to the fiction that the plug has to grip the cable with enormous force, and that the difference -- in a gold-plated plug -- between a standard, firm connection and a "death grip" makes an audible difference.

What it does it harm the equipment. To make matters worse, they want you to use stiff cable behind the plugs. Now think this through, if your brain is in gear today. MOST owners of audio gear have the equipment in a piece of audio-video furniture with a partially or completely closed back. When the gear has everything plugged in, and the owner pushes the gear back on the shelves, what happens to the cables? They have to bend. Now, since they are not soft and supple, this is like having numerous crowbars sticking out of the back of the gear, and being yanked to the side.

The degree of frustration, hassle and annoyance heaped upon the community of audio enthusiasts by death-grip audio cables, and their use in typical A/V installations, is almost beyond belief. An improvement in sound, which at best is subtle and is usually inaudible, is exchanged for almost limitless frustration with damaged jacks and signal loss. And all this high profit margins on the part of the vendors of "boutique-quality" interconnects.

Fred
 
Fred Longworth said:
At my repair facility, we have seen hundreds of machines, many of them high-end such as Krell, where death-grip audio cables have damaged the RCA jacks. Almost to the last customer, the owners of these machines swear by their death-grip cables. And yet, how can a cable be good if in a high percentage of cases it damages the jacks and causes signal cutting out?

Your following quote nails it: "Through the collect chuck device which works like a chuck of a drill machine the plug’s outer contact once inserted clamps firmly to the RCA socket. The maximum contact pressure provides not only a secure connection, but also minimizes the transition resistance." That's the sine quo non of a death-grip cable, pandering to the fiction that the plug has to grip the cable with enormous force, and that the difference -- in a gold-plated plug -- between a standard, firm connection and a "death grip" makes an audible difference.

What it does it harm the equipment. To make matters worse, they want you to use stiff cable behind the plugs. Now think this through, if your brain is in gear today. MOST owners of audio gear have the equipment in a piece of audio-video furniture with a partially or completely closed back. When the gear has everything plugged in, and the owner pushes the gear back on the shelves, what happens to the cables? They have to bend. Now, since they are not soft and supple, this is like having numerous crowbars sticking out of the back of the gear, and being yanked to the side.

The degree of frustration, hassle and annoyance heaped upon the community of audio enthusiasts by death-grip audio cables, and their use in typical A/V installations, is almost beyond belief. An improvement in sound, which at best is subtle and is usually inaudible, is exchanged for almost limitless frustration with damaged jacks and signal loss. And all this high profit margins on the part of the vendors of "boutique-quality" interconnects.

Fred
Click to expand...

Fred,
I am not questioning your expertise or your GENERAL theory but I have to say with this particular plug you are way off.
Maybe you have to handle them to see exactly what i am talking about.
Look closely at the pictures,
there is no possibility of death grip; two of the tabs are plastic with only one single copper tab that is compressed down on to the socket when you turn the barrel to tighten.
When you turn the barrel it presses the copper tab coated in gold down toward the socket base.
They have gone so far as to have the barrel have a seperate free rotating ring apply the pressure to stop any twist that is generated by tightening the lower part of the barrel transmitting to the contact surfaces.
Until the barrel is tightened the plugs put literally NO tension onto the RCA socket; they pull on and off the socket with no resistance until the barrel/collet is tightened.
Maybe these pictures will help you visualize.
WBTends001.jpg

WBTends003.jpg

WBTends004.jpg

WBTends005.jpg

WBTends006.jpg

WBTends007.jpg

Hope these help.

I am not sure how well you viewed this thread if you are addressing the stiff cable issue as I used Mogami neglex 2534 one of the most flexible cables manufactured today!
cheers,
tal
 
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Do good ICs really make a differnce??? I always use the blue stuff you can get at Best Buy for under 10 bucks. Is the difference really noticable or more intuitive??? THis is a serious question as I have never done any swapping. I look at the cost of those RCA ends and think: these ain't cheap.
 
djnagle said:
Do good ICs really make a differnce??? I always use the blue stuff you can get at Best Buy for under 10 bucks. Is the difference really noticable or more intuitive??? THis is a serious question as I have never done any swapping. I look at the cost of those RCA ends and think: these ain't cheap.
Click to expand...

These particular ends are VERY expensive; most are nowhere near this price.

:yes:
My answer to question of difference would be to answer, it depends what the system you are going to be using them with is.

Higher end Hi-Fi, well matched, with good synergy between components; absolutely!:thmbsp::yes:

Average, Mid-Fi receivers and components, garage systems, ect..:no: your money is better spent on music :music: than Uber expensive IC's BUT these don't need even be expensive you can build for less than buying monster at BB.


The main point of this thread may have been derailed by the expensive ends I used, but the point really is that there is @ $13 worth of Mogami star quad used, a couple of dollars of PET, and these cable could be completed using a couple of nice neutrik plug sets for a total cost of @$30 with 95%+ of the performance of the more expensive plug/wire combination I pictured.
cheers,
tal
 
I've been making ICs lately using the same Mogami cable --but in a few different colors-- with similar PET (but again in different colors) and some different-but-decent Japanese and Amphenol RCA plugs. Quite pleased with the results so far. That Mogami microphone cable is good stuff, great bang-for-the-buck! At least for now, I see no reason to experiment with anything else or blow big bucks on fancy-shmancy ICs, although one day I might try solid silver ones, just out of curiosity.

Your cables look great, and the write-up and pics were excellent, too. Thanks for sharing that! :thmbsp:
 
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