DIY solid gold interconnects?


I have an 8wpc amp using el34's connecting to a McIntosh MX130 pre-amp to an Esoteric Z500, Plus some other stuff for HT. I recently read an article about the use of single wire connects. It seems to me that the best connects would be made purely of a single 12-13g rhodium plated solid gold wire that would be encased in something else. What I do for a living would make this quite possible and easy for me to concoct, but I would like some input as to weather or not this would be the way to go.
irishwolf

Showing 2 responses by electro77

Uh, just because gold is not a good conductor doesn't mean it doesn't sound good. You want to sit on your couch and listen to music, not sit on the ground behind your system with an oscilloscope, right? A lot of the hot new interconnects on Audiogon use gold as conductors. Check out the threads on the Gabriel Gold Revelation, KCI Silkworm, and the cables from Jade Audio. The reason the "high end" cable manufacturers don't use gold in their interconnects isn't because it's a bad conductor, but rather it's too expensive. These manufacturers sell their cables to dealers who double the price before selling to you. Making gold cables would be prohibitively expensive to these people, because gold is already expensive before the dealer markup. Gabriel Gold, KCI, and Jade Audio sell their interconnects direct, so they can afford to utilize gold. I have tried gold, silver, and copper interconnects, and I (and many others) feel that interconnects containing gold give you the best tonality, especially with vocals.

I agree that you should check out Jadem6's thread about interconnects. I use his interconnects in my system (Jade Audio Hybrids), and I can tell you he knows what he's doing! I would warn you that although it sounds like you can easily make wire from precious metals, getting them to sound good in an interconnect requires so much trial and error that you may be better off saving your time and paying someone else who has already done this!

Tomer
And in case you didn't know, Johngp happens to be John Prator from KCI. Given that he also makes fantastic cables, you should definitely heed his advice!

Tomer