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

Showing 7 responses by 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.
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 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.
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/
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.
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.
76doublebass : I did indeed use the solid core Cardas from Michael Percy Audio, as well as the solid core 30 ga from him.