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Has anyone tried making their own interconnects?

Hey guys,

I've posted a few threads lately asking about DACs and Class D amplifiers and such. My current system consists of a recently acquired Marsh P2000 pre amp, Aragon 2004 amp, Emotiva XDA-1 DAC, Squeezebox Touch and Silverline Minuet Supreme Plus speakers. I'm also running all Blue Jeans cabling.

I was listening to some Diana Krall last night and it really hit me that I'm pretty comfortable with the synergy that I have with my components. I really enjoy listening to my system.

So, I was wondering if maybe I could try just a little bit of tweaking, since I'm no longer feeling an urgent need to change any components.

My interest is in making my own interconnects. I really have no desire to spend even $100 on an interconnect, but I've found that it is possible to get some good silver or silver plated copper wire at very reasonable prices.

I have a good soldering station and am fairly proficient with a soldering iron, so I figured that I could try my hand at making my own.

Have any of you tried this? What were your results? Which connectors did you use?

Thanks.
tonyangel
elizabeth
6,726 posts
 
YES. Some of my best cables.
I have a pile of "Mark Levinson" wire ffrom early 80's
I love it.
I reterminated it a few years ago with 'Tiffany' sttyle Vampire RCA connectors.
I love the 'Tiffany' design connector as the outer ground is a crimp using the entire case, rather than a crummy single point solder.
(Plenty of expensive RCA have horrible/difficult ground connections. Tiffany design solves that totally)

My interconnects cost me $24 a set for the RCAs.. and $2 a foot for the wire.
They remind me of older Cardas wires.
grinnell
661 posts
 
I tried a phono cable with a din plug and some 32g silvered copper wire. It worked. not any better than the Linn cable i had.
philjolet's avatar
philjolet
2,262 posts
 
the Mogami 2534 wire with Neutrik ends is so cheap already made for <$60.00 I would not bother myself

my two cents...
photon46
1,008 posts
 
Here's a thread on this subject that was running last year on Audiocircle. The packing tape/Kapton interconnect is a very good sounding bargain interconnect IF you can get away with using unshielded wire in your location. Not everyone can, obviously. I've had a number of people contact me after building them who expressed surprise at how good they sounded. They are rather delicate and take care when connecting and disconnecting.

http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=107608.20
jimc555's avatar
jimc555
30 posts
 
If you like MIT cables a lot of people don't know that you can buy DIY interconnect and speaker cable kits from MIT,
the interconnect kit comes with RCA connectors and a 3-pole articulation "chip" inside the RCA, you soldier them yourself (WBT silver soldier is highly recommended).
The cable is the correct impedance for interconnects which is not possible to make without proper test equipment.
Jim C.
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