DIY interconnects ... found MUCH success


I have spent the past few months making MANY different DIY interconnects and testing them in my system. I've spent probably $600 on materials from MANY different sources, and have spent countless hours listening and cataloguing the results. And I have came to this conclusion :
Jadem6 is mostly DEAD ON ! While this poor fellow gets ribbed heartily by many for his extensive and outlandish experiments in the DIY realm, I have a feeling he is probably getting the last laugh !
Let me cut to the chase : I did almost EVERY experiment while making my own interconnects that he did , and more ..... And the ONLY thing I did not do that he did, is experiment using pure gold connectors ... I simply could not justify affording gold.
However, I did use probably 10 different brands and sources of pure silver wire. I also tried EVERY wire gauge and wire combination possible ! Here is how it ended up shaking out:

Straight parallel runs of conductors spaced 3/4" apart do indeed sound the best of ALL possible combinations.

Three 30ga strands of silver for the positive conductor do indeed sound the best of ALL possible combinations.

One strand of 23ga silver for the negative run do indeed sound the best of ALL possible combinations.

Eichmann Gold bullets sounded best with silver ( I did try silver Eichmann RCAs with ALL of the different brands of silver wires, but found it made the sound a little to "white" sounding in my system, a traight silver is often known for. Gold seemed to give it that perfect warmth to blend perfect with the silver wires ).

Where JD and I differ is on the construction of the outer jacket of the cables: JD was trying to make the perfect cable that could also be SOLD and stand up to consumer usage. I was trying to make a perfect cable that I could use in MY system, and KNEW it would never be abused in any way.
Therefore when I ended up using a pure unbleached cotton weave material that is flat, I was finished. I sleeved the conductors in 2mm cotton sleeves, then threaded it through the cotton weave material at 3/4" intervals. Almost ZERO dialectric effect, and the spacing stays perfectly constant due to the weave being somewhat stiff.
I've never heard a better interconnect, and have owned the VERY BEST brands offerings, from Valhalla to Tara Labs.
So here's to Jadem6 .... You have the basics covered perfectly in my book !
timtim
Gregm : They are not twisted at all, just laying side by side in parallel touching each other, with the cotton sleeve keeping them tightly together.
76doublebass : I did indeed use the solid core Cardas from Michael Percy Audio, as well as the solid core 30 ga from him.
Hi I've been experimenting as well and found solid core 18 guage tv cable coax nice for speaker cable and need to try these out as IC's.
I do have a question. Did u use solid core cable from the Cardas wire listed in Michaels Catalog or the Kimber AGSS
Solid silver?
Hi Bombaywalla ... The cotton weave is not overly stiff, but once you get both positive and negative conductors through it, both sides folded over on themselves, and a couple of small beads of hot glue to hold down the folded sides, it is then plenty stiff to stay perfectly formed.
The conductors are pulled throuh whre the white cotton is in the photos ... pos on one side and negative on the other. As far as connecting to the bullets, I just press it together where it enters the back of the connector.
It seems pretty clear that no manufacturer could produce interconnects this way.

And so the question arises: At this point, is there any expectation of being able to buy the highest quality interconnects from a commercial supplier?

The answer may well be: No.
Hi Timtim,
looks like you have been very busy constructing DIY cables! ANd, you have had great success. COngrats!
I looked at you pix & got some idea of your technique.

Is the cotton material weave pretty stiff so that it maintains its flat, broad nature? In the pix it is very hard to tell whether than 1.5" - 2" cotton material is stiff or flexible.
Once you have 3 conductors thru the weave, where is the single return signal cable?
Further, how do you bring all the wires to 1 point to connect to the Eichmann bullets?
Perhaps some pix of the finished product would be very helpful & much appreciated. Thanks very much!
Hi Tim,

Thank you for your thoughts, and supporting my past efforts. We sometimes risk ridicule for being compulsive, but for those who care, the effort is appreciated.

You certainly did your homework, and it's great to see your efforts. I think your method is far simpler for the average DIY'er to achieve, so I applaud the result.

LamCam, I believe Tim meant to say solid gold conductors. I did not use solid gold connectors, but the wire used in my project was solid 99.99% pure gold, and it is indeed very expensive. The costs of trial and error DIY work is quite high compared to building someone else's recipe without testing other designs. Add to this the cost of solid gold wire, and it can easily cost $5000 or more to develop a gold cable from scratch. In silver these costs might be closer to $300, so you can see why Tim chose to stay away from gold.

Objective if you hit the "review" link under my name it will lead you to the DIY Interconnect review I wrote a couple years ago.

Again thanks for the efforts Tim, and it's great to see so many questions from others who want to try this very rewarding project.

jd
Forgot to say .... The photos in my link show my earlier efforts using Tara Labs conductors. I ended up doing the same thing with silver in cotton sleeves.
Thanks for the pictures Timtim. Now I need more details on the construction ...
- how many and what type wires + and -?
- you inserted them flat but then rolled them after insertion - how does that maintain the 3/4" spacing?
- what kind of cotton was used and where was it purchased?
- Michael Percy wire - which on and what guage?
- did you try a silver/copper hybrid?
- anything else about construction techniques or materials?

Thanks,
Bob
The cotton material has purchased at a fabric store. I simply attached the conductors encased in cotton sleeves to the white strings running through the material via a tiny drop of super glue, and pulled the conductors through.
Then folded the cotton material over and used a tiny line of hot glue to secure each fold. It does NOT wave or bend on it's own, and does keep a perfectly constant spacing.
Twist two nylon cores together. Then in each channel, run the pos/neg signal wires. They stay separated that way, perfectly spaced. No shields of course.

Let the thread resume.
OK : I'll try this, but am not sure it will work. Here is a link to pics of some of my DIY projects on Photobucket.

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v112/SRTBlue/aud/
Thanks for your comments, all of you. I don't have a lot of time, but will try and answer some questions. First, the conductors. I indeed tried the Jupiter wires that are wrapped in cotton, but found them inferior to the wire I ended up using, which came from Michael Percy Audio.
As far as copper wire, I tried about 6 fifferent brand conductors of copper, and found Tara Labs RSC wire conductors to be FAR better than any other copper, but not as resolving or extended as silver.
Perfect spacing is indeed maintained by threading the wire through the cotton. I'll figure out how to post pics and will make everything a LOT clearer at that time.
Very cool Timtim. What is the process that you use to maintain perfect spacing of 3/4" between the conductors through the length of the cable? Do you rely on the conductor threaded through the cotton to maintain this conductor separation? Does this result in a flat ribbon design of 2-3" in width? Now you can try the same experiments with silver and gold wire to achieve the performance of JD's awesome Hybrid cable. 8-)
I have been building my own wires for years. Of the dozen or so cables that I keep around. I find that OCC single crystal copper (both stranded and thin guage solid core) in combination with solid core silver are my favorite. No silver wire I have tried has the low level resolution of OCC copper. I have not tried OCC silver and have been tempted to do so. I have had various luck with alloy wires, but they tend to take the backseat.
Yes, please send us links to source materials, construction details, parts lists, and pictures if possible.
I have found silver wire encased in cotton wrap, varying gauges, through Parts Connexion, unbleached non-wax cotton, by Jupiter. They also carry Deulund silver foil, 18 gauge equivalent, in a oil-impregnated silk dielectric jacket. Would either of these wires be suitable for making ICs? Thanks for your efforts.
Just wonder how you can afford Valhalla but can not afford gold connectors? Are gold connectors very expensive?
Timtim, Thanks much for doing the work. Can you elaborate on the cotton-sleeving and the stiff cotton flatweave? Does that mean that your cables are wavy?
I believe i remember reading those threads a while ago... and wanted to review them... could you provide a link? i couldn't find the thread through the obvious searches
Tim,
Thanks for the info, it sounds good. How about photos, and details about the jacket, how it was assembled etc.
Thanks