Anybody here terminate DH Labs BL-1 cable?

I don’t know why people are getting confused. It’s exactly the same as with a speaker or AC plug. The circuit, to be a circuit, is a loop.

Try cutting off the neutral wire on an AC plug and see how well your amp plays then. :)

I think part of the confusion is the AC safety ground. You should never rely on the chassis, and AC ground conductor to carry a signal. That’s not what it’s there for. The signal ground and chassis ground should either be completely disconnected, or have high impedance isolation.

And never disconnect the AC safety ground pin.

Best,


Erik

@williewonka I'm waiting on some cable then I'll be building a couple of your power cables.. I'm interested to hear what change they bring, if any. I'm currently using diy cables I made based on the VH audio designs. However, I filled the PVC tubing that contains the conductor and neutral with aluminum oxide powder to act as a mechanical damper. My conductor and neutral are silver plated copper..

Thanks for posting the designs. I love diy! I just made a y cable using your helical architecture and some plenum cat 5 cable for playing music from my phone. It sounds great and looks pretty. Which is more than I can say about myself..

Todd - if you follow the parts identified on the site I think(hope) you will be pleasantly surprised - but allow the prescribed burn-in. The power cables aren't too bad at 60-80 hours, but the IC's take 300-400 hours before they sound their best - I have no idea why - perhaps the low voltages at play?

What components are the power cables for?

Do you have a good outlet in the wall? I like Pass and Seymour MRI grade outlets from Take Five audio - they clamp like a vice and are reasonably 

Here's what PC's I have on my gear so you can get an idea of my setup...
- in the wall - Pass and Seymour MRI outlets
- Power Helix 10 gauge from wall into a distribution box with Pass and Seymour
- Power Helix 10 gauge from wall into a NAIM 5i mkII integrated
- Power helix 12/13 gauge from box to Moon Phono stage
- Power Helix 12/13 from box to Schiit Bifrost
- the Bifrost has a split USB cable - one side power one side signal with a stable external power supply
- all IC's are the Helix MK V
- digital IC - Helix Mk V Digital (which has the Silver Harmony RCA's and copper signal wire - I found a standard Helix MK V with Absolute Harmony and silver signal wire made no difference to the sound when used for digital stuff

I tried different permutations attaching the PC's to components, but the usage described above provided the most optimal results.

I used both DH Labs and Furutech for the live conductor on the PC's and I really can't tell the difference anymore. But that may well depend on the component it's attached too

Keep me posted - I would be most interested to hear your experience.

cheers

Oops - that should have been...

- the Vlink192 has a split USB cable - one side power one side signal with a stable external power supply and a Helix MK V Digital SPDIF into the Bifrost

Sorry about that :-)

@williewonka
I finished the cables and they sound great from the start. Though I think a lot may be attributed to the silver plug and IEC connectors. I have a DIY power box wired with 10awg silver plated copper straight through a DIY power cord like the VH audio cords. No IEC connector, just outlets to plug, which I upgraded to a silver Sonarquest during this project. My outlets (wall and box) are all Hubbel 5362 and I have a dedicated 20 amp line to the two outlets in my room, though i only use one. Unless I’m vacuuming.

I made 2 10awg cords.
I ended up using the innards from a power cable I found through your power strip post. It’s the place you purchased your chassis from: vt4c.com. I bought GY-PW8000, which only has two conductors and a smaller gauge ground, but the conductors are teflon insulated, monocrystal (whatever..) rectangular, multigauge copper. And they’re fat. My contact there said they were approx 11awg, but I found them to be fatter than 10awg, maybe not quite 9awg.

I bought the silver sonarquest connectors. It’s funny, my previous DIY cords also had sonarquest, but I hadn’t noticed the silver before.

The cables are for a dared MC-7P tube preamp and a crown xls-1500 amp. I’ll make one for my CD player next. I’ll probably give interconnects a try too, though just in copper so i can compare the sound difference to my current copper cardas cable DIY ICs. I’m a bit limited in budget, as you can tell by my meagre gear, but it’s capable enough for me to be able to notice differences in cables, especially now that i’m beginning to sort out room acoustics.