DIY interconnects

[givendale]

Hi all been lookin at the discussion pages for a while now and have enjoyed all of the bits of information that you people have supplied.

Can anyone help me with any information regarding making your own interconnects either RCA leads or digital coaxial.

I am new to the audio addiction but it is taking a hold rather rapidly best toys I have ever bought.

Anny help would be greatly appreciated :)

[daviethek]

I apprecite your ambition. I assume others in the forum will give you links to their favorite DIY pages. About 3 years abo I assembled a pair of analog interconnects from solid silver wire, teflon tape and Eichman bullet plugs. I also bought silver solder. The whole rig costs around 100.00 (us). I had no complaints whatsoever with the sound but I was unable to detect any improvements over a decent hi-fi interconnect from a cable supplier at around the same money. It was fun to do anyway. dk

[daviethek]

Sir, if you just do a search for something like " DIY interconnects" you willl get a number of hits on fabrication, materials and hobbyist designs for interconnects. The one I constructed was the Chris Verhaus design as I described above.

If you are still in the planning stage for hi-fi purchases, it might be better to get exactly what you want in speakers, amplifiers and digital sources before concentrating on cables
and interconnects. Through trial and error and the benefit of practical experience, I have found that well constructed decent sounding interconnects can now be purchased cheaply. I recently bought a pair for my bedroom system for around 6 bucks and I have no complaints with what I hear from them. (Knukonceptz classic series).

[givendale]

I have bought the following and just fiddling more than anything

Denon DCD 1420
Denon 2105 AV Receiver
Rotel 980BX Power Amp
Richter Regent Speakers
Richter Unicorn Centre

Regards

[hermanv]

My friend and I found that better and better interconnects seemed to be available for more and more money. Even though we could hear improvements, the prices soon became so steep that one begins to feel a little foolish.

We experimented with a substantial number of DIY solutions. Here is what we found:

The single biggest effect was dielectric absorbtion (or at least insulators or construction techniques that minimized dielectric absorbtion had the best sonic results). We found that air as a dielectric couldn't be beat. Buy some 20 to 24 gauge high purity wire, slip it in an oversize Teflon tube, say 3/16". Overwrap this tube with a second empty Teflon tube. Make two wires this way, twist them around each other about 1 turn per foot, slip the whole assembly into a larger tube or woven cloth covering (just for looks) solder on the ends and you will have a very decent interconnect. It's not shielded, so keep it away from magnetic or electric fields. Allow 40 hours or so for break in, don't kink it..

Metal purity counts, either silver or copper will sound best if its very pure. Buy very good connectors.

This matches, to our ears, commercial cables that run $500 to $1000 a pair.