AudioNervosa
Self Medicating => General DIY => Topic started by: Tam Lin on August 23, 2019, 03:36:06 PM
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My exploration of audio cables started in 2004 after I re-terminated damaged Cardas Golden Reference interconnects with Eichmann Bullet plugs. The repaired cable had greater resolution and less grain and glare. I attributed the improvement to the lower mass of the plug. All the metal in high-end RCA connectors is not needed to conduct the signal and, in fact, may be detrimental.
That experience led me to experiment with different low-mass cable designs.
My ICs use Cardas 33-awg tonearm wire woven into a 3/8” dia. polypropylene hollow-braid rope. The fused end of the rope forms a collar that secures the RCA plug.
My speaker cables use many of strands of 24-awg litz wire bunched together in a random fashion. Each litz strand is composed of 105 44-awg magnet wires. Each speaker driver has its own polypropylene-wrapped cable from the amp. The effective cable gauges are 9 (Low), 12 (Mid), 15 (High), and 18 (Sub).
My power cables are Belden 83704 wired as a star quad. A 12-awg ground wire is spiraled around the outside.
My digital cable is a twisted-pair stripped from a cat-5 network cable.
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Looks kinda tricky to weave like that. Why not just some cotton tubing?
I think the rhodium plating isn't good on stuff personally. Silver/gold OK, but rhodium doesn't sound right to me.
It would be nice if there were more low mass options!
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What rhodium plating?
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Cardas, Furutech, lots of them use it.
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Rhodium takes a lot of break in and has a sound kind of like a loudness button - extended top and tight extended bottom which produces a slightly recessed middle.Great if your system is overly warm and needs a little brightening up and more slam.