DELETED_5350
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if you can stretch to £24 you can pick up a set of Mark Grant RCA leads, you wont get better under £100, in fact there is some b stock for £18 on the site now
I think you can better them for 100, but the only real way to do that will be DIY silver interconnects
But the mark grant cable is fantastic for the money, and il be posting up listening impressions soo of it vs my DIY silver cable.
I think you can better them for 100, but the only real way to do that will be DIY silver interconnects
But the mark grant cable is fantastic for the money, and il be posting up listening impressions soo of it vs my DIY silver cable.
Be very interested to seee the results mate, I tested them against 3 cables, a £40 cable talk, a £60 IXOS and a £90 cable talk and it was head and shoulders above them all.
If you cable is sucessfull are you going to offer a service for forum members
Depends on the rest of your system, I noticed a very noticable improvment. Email them, im sure if you dont like em you can just send em back.
http://www.engadgethd.com/2006/01/14/creating-your-own-component-cables/
its all the tools you need to buy to do the job properly thats the expensive bit. its pretty easy to soucre the decent cable and RCA plugs, so as long as you have a steady hand you can save a packet.
This was copied direct from my post in the cable build thread over at head-fi 
Here's my new DIY stereo IC build, based on the chris venhaus 'double helix' design (http://www.venhaus1.com/diysilverinterconnects.html). Im building x3 cables to be used to connect up my Marantz cd-63 / emu 0404 sources to my arcam integrated / Millett MAX headphone amp via my switchbox (also being build atm). Im going for a silver theme and am using the following parts:
- 0.5mm silver wire (thanks pete)
- 22 AWG teflon tubing to encase the wire
- 3 AWG teflon tubing
- Yarbo Silver plated RCA plugs
- 11cm diameter cotton tubing
- White heatshrink (if fit fits)
My current IC is a 'Mark Grant' 1m cable ive been using for the past year. I purchased it from the power buy thread over at avforums, and i have to say it's an excellent cable for the money (£25 for 0.5m or 1m)and it has crimped Canare RCAs on Canare LV61S cable.................................
Right, firstly i found out after some dummy runs with the cotton sheething over the thick teflon tubing, that the tubing was far to rigid and prone to serious kinking with more than a slight bend in it. this could shear the wire off if it was actually built and used.
So i poped along to our local 'Focus' and picked up some 5mm 'poly tubing' which is PVC tubing. As you can see from the pic it is a lot easier to work with.
The Build
This is for a 0.5m IC.
DISCLAIMER: I don't take any responsibility for people blowing channels on there equipment due to incorrect wiring up of the IC's. This is a simple guide of how i made mine, which can be followed to make a similar set of IC's.
[1]
- Cut x2 0.5m lengths of 5mm diameter polytubing.
- Mark out 2 inch intervals all along the tubing, followed by 1 inch intervals in between the 2 inch ones.
- [TEST] Wrap the thin 0.8mm diameter teflon tubing around, hitting the 2 inch intervals. Once desired length is verified cut off, and repeat for a second piece.
- Cut a small hole 20mm from each end of the polytubing to allow signal and ground wire to be protected inside the polytubing near the RCA plug.
- Feed in silver wire to x4 of the 0.8mm teflon tubing, and cut off leaving 10mm excess sticking out.
- Wrap x2 silver containing teflon cables around hitting the marks, and push them through the holes near the end of the polytubing.
What it should all look like
Here's my new DIY stereo IC build, based on the chris venhaus 'double helix' design (http://www.venhaus1.com/diysilverinterconnects.html). Im building x3 cables to be used to connect up my Marantz cd-63 / emu 0404 sources to my arcam integrated / Millett MAX headphone amp via my switchbox (also being build atm). Im going for a silver theme and am using the following parts:
- 0.5mm silver wire (thanks pete)
- 22 AWG teflon tubing to encase the wire
- 3 AWG teflon tubing
- Yarbo Silver plated RCA plugs
- 11cm diameter cotton tubing
- White heatshrink (if fit fits)
My current IC is a 'Mark Grant' 1m cable ive been using for the past year. I purchased it from the power buy thread over at avforums, and i have to say it's an excellent cable for the money (£25 for 0.5m or 1m)and it has crimped Canare RCAs on Canare LV61S cable.................................
Right, firstly i found out after some dummy runs with the cotton sheething over the thick teflon tubing, that the tubing was far to rigid and prone to serious kinking with more than a slight bend in it. this could shear the wire off if it was actually built and used.
So i poped along to our local 'Focus' and picked up some 5mm 'poly tubing' which is PVC tubing. As you can see from the pic it is a lot easier to work with.
The Build
This is for a 0.5m IC.
DISCLAIMER: I don't take any responsibility for people blowing channels on there equipment due to incorrect wiring up of the IC's. This is a simple guide of how i made mine, which can be followed to make a similar set of IC's.
[1]
- Cut x2 0.5m lengths of 5mm diameter polytubing.
- Mark out 2 inch intervals all along the tubing, followed by 1 inch intervals in between the 2 inch ones.
- [TEST] Wrap the thin 0.8mm diameter teflon tubing around, hitting the 2 inch intervals. Once desired length is verified cut off, and repeat for a second piece.
- Cut a small hole 20mm from each end of the polytubing to allow signal and ground wire to be protected inside the polytubing near the RCA plug.
- Feed in silver wire to x4 of the 0.8mm teflon tubing, and cut off leaving 10mm excess sticking out.
- Wrap x2 silver containing teflon cables around hitting the marks, and push them through the holes near the end of the polytubing.
What it should all look like
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[2]
- Cut off x2 pieces of 30-40mm length black and red heatshrink.
- Slide on and use heatsource to shrink it.
This provides a tacky and strong surface for the securing RCA screw to grip into. It also restores some of the strength of the polytubing lost when the holes were cut into each end, preventing fatigure from occuring during plugging/un-plugging.
[3]
- Slide 10mm diameter cotton sheething over each cable assembly, stopping at the end of the polytubing.
- NOT shown in the pic is the additional bit of electrical tape put over the ends of the cotton to prevent fraying and allow easy assembly through the RCA outer casings and RCA plug itself.
[4]
- TEST continuity of wires with a multimeter and mark your signal and ground anyway you chose. I used a permanent marker pen on the little bit of teflon tubing covering the wire as the ground.
- Unscrew RCA and slide both outer parts onto each end of the cables before sliding the actually RCA assembly on.
- Cut excess silver wire to correct size.
- Test continuity of wires again to ensure they arn't mixed up. A mistake here could lead to blown channels on your equipment.
[5]
- Wrap and insert the correct signal and ground wires into the RCA plugs and solder them up with some silver solder.
As the ground wire was soldered near to the outer casing on my plugs, it prevented the casings from being screwed on properly, so i just took a stanley knife and reduced the height of the solder.
[6]
- Screw outer casing back over the RCA.
- Insert clamping screw through casing on the back of the RCA and tighten up.
Check continuity again on the actual signal pin of the RCA and ground of the surround.
Plug in and enjoy.......................
- Cut off x2 pieces of 30-40mm length black and red heatshrink.
- Slide on and use heatsource to shrink it.
This provides a tacky and strong surface for the securing RCA screw to grip into. It also restores some of the strength of the polytubing lost when the holes were cut into each end, preventing fatigure from occuring during plugging/un-plugging.
[3]
- Slide 10mm diameter cotton sheething over each cable assembly, stopping at the end of the polytubing.
- NOT shown in the pic is the additional bit of electrical tape put over the ends of the cotton to prevent fraying and allow easy assembly through the RCA outer casings and RCA plug itself.
[4]
- TEST continuity of wires with a multimeter and mark your signal and ground anyway you chose. I used a permanent marker pen on the little bit of teflon tubing covering the wire as the ground.
- Unscrew RCA and slide both outer parts onto each end of the cables before sliding the actually RCA assembly on.
- Cut excess silver wire to correct size.
- Test continuity of wires again to ensure they arn't mixed up. A mistake here could lead to blown channels on your equipment.
[5]
- Wrap and insert the correct signal and ground wires into the RCA plugs and solder them up with some silver solder.
As the ground wire was soldered near to the outer casing on my plugs, it prevented the casings from being screwed on properly, so i just took a stanley knife and reduced the height of the solder.
[6]
- Screw outer casing back over the RCA.
- Insert clamping screw through casing on the back of the RCA and tighten up.
Check continuity again on the actual signal pin of the RCA and ground of the surround.
Plug in and enjoy.......................
A few pics now, the rest are in the DIY Cable gallery thread at head-fi, or over at zero gain.
the head-fi pics thread : http://www.head-fi.org/forums/showthread.php?t=72860&page=136
the head-fi pics thread : http://www.head-fi.org/forums/showthread.php?t=72860&page=136
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)I made a 3.5mm to 3.5mm cable, it's fairly easy to do and the components are cheap enough to get hold of.
I used 22 AWG teflon coated 19 strand silver wire, white 6mm heatshrink and some 4-8mm black braiding with Neutrik gold plated connectors.
Using 4 lengths of cable with only 3.5mm jacks was a pain, very fiddly bit of soldering (considering it was my first) but it works just fine and sounds good.
I imagine RCA connectors would be easier due to having larger connectors and only needing two cables.
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