Conference hips::uk_audioo

    Why not make your own? That's where the *real* bargains are.
    
    Dave

    re .1
    
    absolutely, though often I've found that really interesting wire has to
    be bought in prohibitously long lengths. In the STC catalogue they sell
    silver plated copper wire, single strand, with PTFE insulation. Sounds
    good, but you need to buy a 100m length for �40.00. My point about the
    Tandy cables is that it would be fairly hard to undercut that price,
    the gold phonos alone probably account for �3.00 of the total.
    
    I guess if we were really organised we should club together for this
    kind of thing - a UK_AUDIO collectors club. we could bring out our own
    black metal brick, call it a strange name, say Jitter-bug and charge
    each other �35 :-) the possibilities are endless. 
    
    how about Green Blue-Tak ?

    re .2
    One of the problems with"interesting" wire is that it is often
    system-dependant. So if several people clubbed together to buy a 100m
    length, once it's made up there is an even chance half of the people
    will think it's differing degrees of wonderful, and the other half will
    think the opposite.
    
    Having said that, I'd be interested in some sort of joint project on
    cables. Participants could make up cables using connectors of their
    choice, audition them in their own systems, then post the results in
    here. It would be neat if the group had a variety of cables, so that
    members could swap with each other (assuming similar terminations),
    again comparing results in here but on different systems.
    
    There would probably have to be some agreement on the language used to
    describe changes (see Jim Lawrence's GLASS topic in the US audio
    conference), otherwise we could have some almighty punch-ups!
    
    Dave

    Ok here goes.
    
    With stuff from my garage I've made up 2 stereo pairs of cables.
    
    Same materials, one 1/2m the other 1/3m.
    
    They are gold phono to phono, with twisted pair silver-plated copper
    conductors (7/0.2 mm) and insulated with PTFE.
    
    Similar configuration cables can can cost #15.00 and upward (Sonic
    Link, Audio Design ). they cost me considerably less than that to make
    , though I had to buy 25m of the cable for another project.
    
    I've listened to them , but would be "interested" if anyone else wants
    to give em a try. I'll then post my thoughts and we can take it from
    there.
                                                               

    I needed a set of extra interconnecdts to add a cassette deck, so I
    took the plunge and bought a set of TANDY 5.99 patch leads (3ft
    phono-to-phono). They use gold phono plugs and seem well built.. They
    appear to be some form of coax, difficult to tell as when you remove
    the case of the phono all the insides is encased in clear plastic.
    
    I've use them from CD player to passive pot to amp (2nd set) and the
    results are good. Similar to the leads I made out of low capacitance
    coax, but quieter as well. I'd reccomend them. I ca'nt help but feel
    that more than �10 for a set of interconnects is a ripoff

>                                                  I ca'nt help but feel
>   that more than �10 for a set of interconnects is a ripoff

Before you decide that, try out a pair of DNM interconnects.  �25 or so but you
can also buy the wire off the reel and stick on your own phonos; that'll cost a
lot less if you use cheapo connectors.  You might be surprised.

The wire is an unshielded spaced (not twisted) solid-core nickel-plated pair.
It looks like a small version of 300-ohm balanced downlead; about 8mm between
conductors.  It has a great midrange and treble but I'm told it's not so good
for bass weight.  I wouldn't know, I use SL600s.  I've tried interconnects
many times the price that I find far inferior.  In fact I haven't found one I
prefer at any price, but then I haven't really been looking.

For obvious reasons you can only use it for line-level, not phono, inputs.

Nick

Forgot to say:  being unshielded, they can get a bit noisy between a passive
pot and an amp.  When I tried this configuration I found the noise depended on
the setting of the pot; usually quite quiet but sometimes a bit intrusive.

Nick

    I've tried loads of interconnects (speaker cables too) and I'm rather
    disillusioned with expensive cables, but I do find that something just
    a bit special does make a very worth while difference.
    
    My gripe with the expensive cables is that they can sound great in a
    system, but change a single component and you may need to change all
    the cables.  So, for me they tune the system too finely.
    
    I've recently used Kimber TC to internally wire my stepped attenuator
    and TC based Kimber PSB interconnect.  The intereconnect costs around
    �10 per metre (unterminated) and the straight TC around �2 per metre. 
    The stepped attenuator was done first, replacing the temporary basic
    hook-up wire.  The effect was to open us the HF and significantly
    spread the soundstage, by this I mean rather than having music left and
    right with vocal in the centre, the music was now very well distributed
    between the speakers.  I was surprised at the amount of improvement.
    
    Next I made up two sets of PSB interconnects.  Now came a very open mid
    range, with ability to distinctly hear quiet notes while loud one were
    playing.  Overall there was far more detail, this was not due to the HF
    being artificially "juiced up".  In fact the HF is well extended, in
    balance with other frequencies and very smooth (I'm very sensitive to
    course treble, so believe me).  My previous interconnect was simply
    Linn phono cable which was good, it out performed Van Den Hul 102,
    Deltec Black Slink and DNM.  Though I have to say that the DNM comes
    closest to Kimber, though Kimber is better all round and far better in
    the bass (it has some, the DNM doesn't).
    
    Now I know why some people rave about Kimber cable, for �30 I've
    really got so much more out of my system, the sort of difference you'd
    expect from spending an extra grand or two on the front end! 
    
    Don't expect cables to magically turn any system into a winner, but if
    there's that bit more performance to be had, it may make the difference.
    I also admit to being afan of have the same cable inside the equipment
    as externally.  I've done this with the power amp outputs having 
    speaker cable going from the pcb to the binding posts.  Since I've done
    this I've been told that differing cables can cause reflections at the
    cable junctions, though what happens in a cable-phono-cable junction of
    even the same type of cable, I don't pretend to know.