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Home Brew Interconnects

Zack Sainz

Zack Sainz

Active Member
Hello All!

About a year ago my friend sent me this link:
http://www.soundstagenetwork.com/synergize/synergize021998.htm

My friend had great success and has a very high resolving system. B&W 803D triamped with dual mc275 and a solid state McIntosh (I don’t remember the model). He said he was blown away by the performance and sold his old interconnects.

I ordered all the parts from ebay and I just didn’t have time to complete the project. Previously I had a mix match of cheap interconnects and moderately priced interconnects, my aim was consistency.

Over the past few days I have finally completed my Home Brew Interconnects.

In total I spent less than $70, I used 18awg silver wire, and carbon fiber rhodium connectors. With all this in mind, I’m able to make 8 custom length interconnects for about $70, not bad.

System Test:
Dynaco A25XL and KEF Q150
Home brew three way braid speaker cable effective gauge ~11
Erhard Audio Buddys (120w tube monos)
Erhard Audio Aretha tube preamp
Sonos Connect via Schiit Modi 3+

Disclaimer:
My turntable is being modified by SFrost, my KLH 5s are with Dennis Murphy who is reworking the crossover, and has gotten a nearly flat frequency response. And currently waiting on Dennis Murphy’s BMR towers, which should arrive in December. So my higher resolving speakers are not currently with me, that being said, the interconnects were still able to up the performance on vintage gold and entry level KEFs.

My initial impressions, with my back up speakers, treble was much more nuanced, airy, detailed and delicate. Vocals sound very realistic, the soundstage is presented with pinpoint accuracy. Stringed instruments totally rule with these interconnects.

Listening to the Dune soundtrack, the dynamic range truly shows, the vocal attacks are wonderful. The symbols and high pitched oscillating symbol effects are effortless and pan through the stage making my listening room feel bigger than it actually is.

Sgt. Pepper, a veil was lifted and I feel like I’m in the recording studio with the Beatles. The laugh track in the on the first song of the album, sounds like it’s projecting about 5-7 behind my speakers, all the other fun effects they do in this album don’t sound like they are coming from speakers.

I did some testing between sources and amps, and when I streamed music from my Xbox (horrible streamer, I know) into my Marantz avr, the playback was very muddy, when I streamed with my sonos to my avr with the home brew interconnects, detail immediately returned.

Finally, through all my listening, about 15 hours now, I haven’t noticed any RF or interference of any sort.

My tube monos blow my avr out of the water, and now with my home brews, my tubes shine even brighter.

I highly recommend making these interconnects if you are in the market for custom length or even just want something new.

Anyway, to end this, the added element of custom diy parts that actually enhance listening, makes music even more exciting!

Next on the diy list, solid core iec power cables.

Happy listening!
 

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Very interesting! Thanks for the post. Congratulations with your successful experiment. I might try it.

I noticed that the original soundstage article by Greg Weaver showed four conductors per interconnect. The article was unclear to me in this detail, but I assume the naked 30 guage silver strands were arranged + - + -. It seems that you used just two insulated wires. Is this correct? What type of wire did you use?
 
You should definitely try it!

Yes, the silver wire I used is insulated, I used solid core 18 AWG Silver Plated PTFE wire and carbon fiber rhodium plugs.

Everything is pretty cheap on eBay.

Each interconnect “cable” gets two wires, +-

I soldered the positive end and clamped the negative end.
 
Will make some up and try. I have everything needed already in my parts closet, including polypropylene tape and bare 26 gauge solid silver strands.

I have seen recommendations (elsewhere) that interconnect-level signals are “better preserved” by thin wire, and therefore the original article by Greg Weaver made a lot of sense to me. Interesting that you achieved good improvement with 18gauge wire - one wonders if it would be any better using 30 gauge solid silver. Anyway, I will try the 26 gauge silver I have in stock.
 
I have found pure silver (.99+) to sound great . A sweet not edgy top end , excellent detail , out performs the best copper . But not necessarily silver plated wire. I usually prefer .999 copper to plated wire. The dielectric is critical too. My friend made some crazy and impractical interconnects with jewelers silver wire , no insulation just separated by tape , the conductors were about 2” apart. Really sounded great but what a mess.
 
spantou01 said:
Will make some up and try. I have everything needed already in my parts closet, including polypropylene tape and bare 26 gauge solid silver strands.

I have seen recommendations (elsewhere) that interconnect-level signals are “better preserved” by thin wire, and therefore the original article by Greg Weaver made a lot of sense to me. Interesting that you achieved good improvement with 18gauge wire - one wonders if it would be any better using 30 gauge solid silver. Anyway, I will try the 26 gauge silver I have in stock.
Click to expand...
Interesting!

My friend who made the inter connects is a much bigger nerd than I am, and suggested 26-18awg pure silver for interconnects.

I went with 18awg because thicker gauge has less resistance, however thicker gauge also carries more capacitance. One of the cool things about this design is since the wires are separated capacitance is reduced.

I will say, since my wire technically has more capacitance, I did not notice any sort of low pass filter with the gauge I was using, all the treble was there and then some!

I wonder if anyone else has experimented with different gauges.

Let us know how the 26awg sounds!
 
billyz said:
I have found pure silver (.99+) to sound great . A sweet not edgy top end , excellent detail , out performs the best copper . But not necessarily silver plated wire. I usually prefer .999 copper to plated wire. The dielectric is critical too. My friend made some crazy and impractical interconnects with jewelers silver wire , no insulation just separated by tape , the conductors were about 2” apart. Really sounded great but what a mess.
Click to expand...
Haha!!!

We are all mad scientists! I think it’s awesome that we can brew our own interconnects and save some money to buy more albums!
 
They certainly look good, but the tech in me wonders how well they can shield the signal from noise without a braided shield conductor encasing the run, and grounded at one end.
If you know anyone with a moving coil cart and step up transformer, put one of your interconnects in between them. That position has the most critical needs for noise rejection and will really test weather an interconnect can, or cannot reject environmental noise.
Best of luck with your testing.
We are all here to learn.
 
trinhsman said:
Waiting for the “cables don’t make a difference” guys to chime in. :jump::lurk:
Click to expand...

I'll never understand why people insist on leading with the chin or jerking the chain, whatever one wishes to call it.

There's this saying, let sleeping dogs lie. You've heard it, yeah?
 
whoaru99 said:
Leading with the chin or jerking the the chain, whatever one wishes to call it, never ceases to amaze me.
Click to expand...
I do believe cables make a difference. My point was this usually opens a can of worms from those that don’t. And they can be pretty brutal with their attacks. Seen it many times.
I own both pure silver and silver plated copper cables in my system.
 
trinhsman said:
I do believe cables make a difference. My point was this usually opens a can of worms from those that don’t. And they can be pretty brutal with their attacks. Seen it many times.
I own both pure silver and silver plated copper cables in my system.
Click to expand...

Then may you should have just said the first part rather than fire the potentially opening volley.
 
trainbuftony said:
They certainly look good, but the tech in me wonders how well they can shield the signal from noise without a braided shield conductor encasing the run, and grounded at one end.
If you know anyone with a moving coil cart and step up transformer, put one of your interconnects in between them. That position has the most critical needs for noise rejection and will really test weather an interconnect can, or cannot reject environmental noise.
Best of luck with your testing.
We are all here to learn.
Click to expand...

I don't use TT very often (and I think it has integral cables anyway, Pioneer PL-707) but the times I experimented with unshielded cables, and still have in one system DAC > tube preamp > tube power amp, I had sort of expected some sort of hum or noise might become apparent. But, to my surprise, none that I could detect.
 
With a moving coil step up and tube phonostage the interconnects off the cartridge will have ~60db more gain than a DACs output.
At that level of gain a mouse fart becomes as loud as a helicopter taking off.

A non shielded interconnect in that position will always introduce noise in my experience and in my experience the fix is not always logical. Youve got to try different ground configurations until you achieve the lowest measured noise.
Putting an interconnect in between your preamp and power amp is like test driving a car downhill only. You arent making it work and testing it, you're coasting...

If the transmission on that car is a slip and slide, you own it, because you didn't put it to the test.
May be a beautiful car, may be a Rolls Royce or a Toyota or any other fine vehicle make.
Doesn't matter, coasting it down hill proves it's on wheels, that's all.
You would presumably expect the car to take you up as many hills as down, and that's where the work occurs. That's where the testing needs to occur.
Roof don't leak on sunny days...
 
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I think cables make a huge difference. Without them, how do we connect our gear! Hahaha!

In all seriousness, this was a cost effective way to make 8 cables. And along the process learning.

And so far, from digital sources I have not heard any unwanted noise.

That being said, a few months ago I was in an apartment in Pittsburgh, and through my tube headphone amp, with shielded cables I was able to clearly hear a local radio station! Hahahahahahha! (And yes, I know tubes act like antennas.)

No system is perfect. Tinkering is fun. Learning is fun. And most of all listening to music is fun.
 
trainbuftony said:
With a moving coil step up and tube phonostage the interconnects off the cartridge will have ~60db more gain than a DACs output.
At that level of gain a mouse fart becomes as loud as a helicopter taking off.

A non shielded interconnect in that position will always introduce noise in my experience and in my experience the fix is not always logical. Youve got to try different ground configurations until you achieve the lowest measured noise.
Putting an interconnect in between your preamp and power amp is like test driving a car downhill only. You arent making it work and testing it, you're coasting...
Click to expand...
Hahahahahha!

These comparisons are amazing!

This input is great! I’ll see if I have any more sensitive gear to test. My turn table is currently undergoing some mods by SFrost.
 
trainbuftony said:
With a moving coil step up and tube phonostage the interconnects off the cartridge will have ~60db more gain than a DACs output.
At that level of gain a mouse fart becomes as loud as a helicopter taking off.

A non shielded interconnect in that position will always introduce noise in my experience and in my experience the fix is not always logical. Youve got to try different ground configurations until you achieve the lowest measured noise.
Putting an interconnect in between your preamp and power amp is like test driving a car downhill only. You arent making it work and testing it, you're coasting...
Click to expand...

Yeah, I understand phono gain and the heighted sensitivity.

Point being though, it that's not the OP's use case why go out of the way to prove a "fail"? If it is the use case then fair enough.
 
In an effort to understand the why and how of audio science we create tests conditions which are often abusive to a component, or push it well be the normal use scenario to see how and why it fails.
Ive learned through experience which parameters are most important, and I do my very best to design tests that screen for the parameters I find most important and in my experience with cables shielding is of extreme importance in order to achieve the best signal to noise ratio.
The way I do things, I could grab any interconnects I own, and expect silent rests on a MC phonostage.
I don't need to keep track of which interconnect goes where, because they are all dead ass silent, on a moving coil phonostage.
Nothing you'll encounter as a civilian is likely to be any more sensitive than that.
So I design for the worst case scenario.
Build a transmission that slips on half the hills in town and your car is functionally useless.
Build a transmission that holds tight on the steepest hill around and you save yourself the time.
The moving coil to transformer position is the steepest hill in the whole state.
Stick it to the floor, what are you afraid of.
Failure is negated by learning what to do differently next time, if you continue to improve you will not fail.
You will succeed at finding what doesn't work, or doesn't work as well.
 
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