Try this simple DIY interconnect cable.

Twl: I built a set of cables incorporating some of the ideas that you discussed. The wire i'm using is 24 gauge Teflon insulated silver plated copper. I'm using two per polarity for an equivalent 21 gauge conductor. I have multiple spools of this stuff, so i figured i'd give it a try. The two "positive" conductors are wrapped around each other in a twisted pair configuration and the two "negative" conductors are also wrapped in a spiral pair. The positive conductors are run in a straight line down one side of the tube and the negative are spaced on the opposite side of the tube in a straight line. Capacitance is pretty low, appr 8 pf per foot, so i know that should make Audioengr happy : ) The RCA's are locking models that have a Teflon dielectric.

I finished them a few days ago and threw them on my burner. After letting them "cook" for about 36 hours, i gave them a quick listen. They were not bad at all. I compared them to some of the Magnan's that i have ( Models 2, 3 & 4 ) and they help up pretty well. As you may know, the Magnan's use very fine wire ( something like 36 gauge ) and try to achieve an air dielectric. I did not measure any of the Magnan's, so i don't know what their electrical characteristics are like. They've always come across as being very smooth, airy, liquid and detailed but a little on the lean side.

I also tried them against some Goertz Silver Sapphire's, which are similar to their speaker cable design. These are flat ( NOT twisted ) and make use of 18 gauge pure silver ( not plated copper ). This design is VERY, VERY, VERY high in capacitance and i was wondering what to expect. In most cases with typical SS line level gear is concerned, highly capacitive interconnects are a "no-no".

In both cases, the Magnan's and the Goertz sounded slightly more liquid with a more cohesive presentation. The upper mids on my "home-brews" were slightly subdued, resulting in a presentation that was not quite as spacious sounding and slightly lacking in overall clarity and transparency. Female vocals were a little less intelligible and slightly more congested sounding. Frequency extension was quite good on both ends of the audio spectrum. The soundstaging on all of these cables was excellent and beat out several others that i tried in the same location of the system.

I put the cables back on the burner and am going to let them cook for a full 30 days. It is quite possible that they will sound different after "fully cooking" as i'm sure i caught them "in transition". I'm hoping that the upper mids fill out a bit in the process. I may have to tweak the design a bit more otherwise.

I've also got another set of homebrew interconnect cables that i'm working on, but haven't gotten them fully assembled yet. I thought i had them finished up, but forgot to do something and had to pull them apart again. I'm following the design that Jung & Marsh laid out in their research, so we'll see how that goes. For a three foot pair of stereo interconnects, you end up using 96 foot of wire !!! Needless to say, there is a LOT of cutting and soldering going on. Once i get them put back together, they'll go on the burner for 30 days of "punishment" and then i'll give them a listen. Sean
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The late Harvey Rosenberg of Listener and NY Audio Labs popularized a similar design many years ago. You could just as easily twist the two wires around each other, creating a twisted pair. Since they are enameled, you don't have to worry about them shorting out. If you are worried about something like that, try using the individual conductors from some CAT 5 cable. The better stuff is Teflon insulated and it is solid core 24 gauge. It comes pre-made as multiple twisted pairs, so you would only have to terminate the wire into the RCA's.

David Magnan was the first one to try using MEGA thin wire for interconnects. He did this after studying time delay distortions and skin effect. He has since gone from using small gauge wires ( 36 gauge ) to conductive paint. Since the conductive paint literally has no depth, it is all "skin" for increased surface area.

As to the bottom line, i too agree that you can make some pretty phenomenal interconnects for next to nothing. Sean
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What do you mean ? We AREN'T making cables that should cost that much already ??? : ) Sean
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According to Walt Jung and Richard Marsh, solid core 20 gauge is linear out to 20 KHz. Above that point, one may begin to experience skin effect. This will vary with the shape of the conductor though, so some conductors may be better suited than others. Wide and flat solid conductors with rounded edges will work best but then you have to start worrying about high capacitance as you bring the conductors closer together.

While high capacitance isn't a big deal for speaker cables, it is for an interconnect. Goertz finally realized this and came out with their Micro-Purl series of interconnects after already having their "wide, flat & stacked" interconnects. While the Micro-Purls still use flat, wide conductors stacked on top of each other and twisted, they made one very important change. They inserted another unused flat ribbon between the two active conductors. This raises the inductance / lowers the capacitance and makes the cable more usable universally. On top of this, the same cable can be used in a balanced mode now, as you have three conductors at your disposal rather than just two. Too bad they didn't put the Micro-Purls into a better dielectric, as they might have had a real winner with this design.

In the same article mentioned above, Jung and Marsh stated that their tests showed that the use of multiple 24 gauge solid core wires in parallel was the best way to go. This offered low series resistance with no phase or skin effect problems in or directly above the audible range. My experience is that this type of design works VERY well. That is, so long as one uses good quality materials and pays attention to the electrical characteristics of the cable.

In my experience, using just one conductor of this or smaller gauge typically results in a noticeably lean tonal balance. The end result of using multiple wires of light gauge in parallel is a far more even tonal balance without intruding on the high frequency performance that the smaller gauge originally offers.

Magnan is the company that uses conductive paint for some of their interconnects. The drawback to this is that it has a very high series resistance, which in my opinion and experience, is not good thing to design into a cable of any type. Some of the other Magnan's that i have make use of 36 gauge solid core conductors. As a general rule, you'll find that higher grade interconnects avoid using stranded wire. While one can use stranded wire, problems with skin effect and strand jumping will become more apparent at a much lower frequency. Sean
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PS... As i've mentioned before, don't shoot me if you disagree with what i've posted. I'm only the messenger. Take your beef up with Marsh & Jung.

Twl: I agree with what you are saying, but in the long run, almost all cables / cable designs are plagiarized from someone / something down the line.

As far as i know, the first person to build cables using similar design philosophy to what you are talking about and what Chris' design is based on was David Magnan. From my experience and what i've read over the years, he was the first to actually build and market cables trying to reduce skin effect by utilizing "scrawny" wire while trying to minimize dielectric absorption through air insulation. Once he set forth the basic idea / criteria, others followed suit. As you can see, there are more than a few dozen ways to get the job done and some may work better or are easier to produce than others.

For sake of clarity, Jung and Marsh also did some research in this area and published their findings, but i don't which of these two groups was first to publicly display their findings. Even with their relatively similar idealogies on the subject, they both suggested different ways of achieving what were basically the same goals. Hence the similarities in comparing your design to those of Chris VH. In effect, they are what is commonly called "the same difference" i.e. a couple different roads that lead to the same destination with each route each providing different scenery along the way : ) Sean
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