DIY interconnect cables

Posted by: wal riley on 10 August 2000

If you've read my system posting, then you'll know that I potter with the DIY aspect of audio as well. I can appreciate that the building, testing and finishing of a pair of speakers might be too time consuming for a lot of us who have spouses to consider, but knocking together a couple of DIY interconnects should really only take about an hour slaving over a hot soldering iron, shouldn't it? I have been experimenting with various cables obtained from Maplin, with varying degrees of success, and the most effective one that I have come up with is not made from any of their co-axial audio cable range, but from some of their silver-plated, PTFE coated equipment wire, catalogue No's. VU08J & VU10L, which are black and red coloured respectively. Not having heard any particularly expensive interconnects, I can't vouch for their absolute sound quality, but they comprehensively outperform Chord Co. Chrysalis, and all the more expensive Maplin cables that i've tried. I just got three lengths of the cable, using two white for the return and one red for the live, and platted them together, chucked on some cheap but reasonable phonos, and waahey! Cheapskate audio nirvana for under a tenner. Laffing! Anyone else got any cheap, quick, audio DIY tips?

[This message was edited by wal riley on FRIDAY 11 August 2000 at 19:54.]

Posted on: 12 August 2000 by david skinner
Wal,

I've been using a similar construction for my CD interconnect for years(except its red, white and green)and its performs much better than any 'budget' shielded twin.I have not compared it with more costly cables I must admit.
DIY is particularly cost effective for long runs (my CD player is about 4m away from the amps). Having also used DIY speaker and SNAIC-alike cables, I must admit that NACA5 and Black SNAIC have the the last word in the timing stakes.

David

Posted on: 13 August 2000 by Rico
Wal

while yer coo-kin up yer cables, be sure to get yer mitts on some Naim ARO interconnect cable. You should be able to get an unterminated 1.2m pair for about a fiver from your friendly Naim dealer. It's coax, and can be a bit of a pain in the ass to terminate, but I reckon you'll be pleasantly surprised.

I've not tried the cables you've mentioned, but may have a go over the next few weeks. After I recover from making a 4xphono-din tape cable from ARO, that is. Are the cables you mention cheaper than ARO per metre?

Rico - musichead

ricomuzik@hotmail.com

Posted on: 13 August 2000 by wal riley
Rico,
The equipment wire in question is about 79p per metre, so you're looking at about £4.80 for six strands to make up the three per side that I was talking about.The joy of doing cheap interconnect is that if it doesn't sound good, then you've not spent more than a few quid, and an afternoon building and listening to it. And if you get one that sounds good, then you can wear your 'smug *******' badge with pride! By the way, thanks for the tip, re. Naim inteconnect. I must admit that I've never seen it around my dealer's shop - and he does sell Naim gear - but next time i'm in i'll badger him for some to experiment with.

Wal