Anyone else making their own cables?


Over the years I have owned a lot of different brands of very sought after and very expensive cables(interconnections both balanced and single ended and speaker cables). Each time selling and then trying another. I recently have been experimenting with making my own. I have been doing a lot of reading on the subject of design. Also I have been dissecting some old inexpensive ones I had lying around. I am starting with ic's. From my experience and what I have read, when done right balanced is the superior method. What I had not realized is that single ended cables can be balanced as well. In fact Annolog(vinyl) starts out as balanced. This is the way I have chosen to make my cables. Also I have found that grounding at the receiving end and simply connecting the grounds at the sending side works best and in my view is the only real reason for directional cables. I have been using wbt and eichmann ends. I would like to hear from others with knowledge of design, cable types and materials, soldering, end type(brands) and their benefits and covers to improve final appearance. I would also be interested in any other point I have not mentioned or to simply disagree with any assertion I or anyone else makes on this subject. I do realize that cables are the single most controversial subject in this hobby. I am not trying to settle that argument. Just offer another option. It may even prove cheaper to buy a brand cable then make your own. I do not have a degree in engerneering nor am I an electrician or computer genius. Just a long time audiophile. My single ended cables are for vinyl set up(turntable to step up transformer to phono stage). Balanced everywhere else. My system is fully balanced(as earlier described) from end to end. Thanks for informative insights.
128x128pkoegz

Showing 3 responses by swampwalker

Since I am so ignorant of the technical details of electrical or electronics that I still don't understand the difference between chassis ground, circuit ground, and signal ground, I am very hesitant to suggest that Al may not be 100% correct. However, fools rush in, so please take this with a grain of salt...

While there may be a pro audio standard for how XLR plugs and jacks are wired, I believe that there is no absolute standard in consumer audio equipment. Some audio gear uses a different pin out/in. I had an Electrocompaniet EMC-1 CDP that was wired differently and so I had to have custom-wired XLR cables made up.

Also, remember that some equipment has XLR jacks and/or plugs, but the circuits they tie to are not true balanced circuits. In that case, the jacks or plugs function as adapters.

I hope that Al (Hi, guy, get much snow?) or someone else will correct me if I am wrong.
Hi Al- Not really on-topic but no, the EMC-1 did not have inverted phase, it flat out did not work w conventionally wired XLR cables. No sound. Nada.
Al said
In most cases a pin diagram for the XLR connectors was marked on the rear panel
Interesting...it's been quite a while but as best as I can recall, the unit I had did not have the pin-outs marked. And I think I remember that it was "upgraded to -UP", so maybe it was an early version that had non-standard pin-out, which was changed for later production. When I sold it, I sold it w the cables since they would not have been good for anything else. Or maybe I dreamed the whole thing...