DIY Interconnects

[truss]

My thanks to the Venom forum; it's a real inspiration. Unfortunately, though I don't think I have this thing hacked yet.
I recently made several attempts with Canare FA-09 RCA's and Canare L-5CFB wire. To prepare for my certain triumph, I set my new interconnects against a pair from "a large discount dept. store." Then, I did an A/B comparison. Friends, don't ever do this when the wife is around. Mine laughed. The darn generic wires sounded better, much better.
So what went wrong? The "other" wires sounded bright and detailed. Mine sounded a bit muffled.
1.) I'm a first-time solderer. The soldering didn't look too bad, but could this be the problem??
2.) I know cables need some warm up time. Could this be it?
3.) I understood that these were rather highly rated items. Are they not?
The only time the DIY's won was when I made one of them the digital coax connection, but the analogs still sounded pretty good. So what do you think?
Also, where can you buy flexwrap? Shrink wrap?

[steveinaz]

Sometimes I think the time/work/money involved with DIY interconnects just isn't worth it. by the time you get done, you've saved maybe $5 over a very good manufactured interconnect. I just don't see the appeal....

Power cables are a different story. I think you can build a very good power cable for next to nothing if you shop around. I can't believe the prices some of these esoteric ac cords go for, talk about a fool's paradise....

[Zero]

Trus,

The DIY approach can certainly instill pride in the work you do. You also learn quite a bit while doing various projects. Of course there is a flip side to everything, and in the DIY world that flip side is attempts that result in below-expectation performance. I am fairly confident that most people who attempt their own cables, speakers, amps, pre amps, have had troubles along the way.

1.) I’m very new to soldering as well. As long as you make a good contact between the wire and the plug itself (not allowing the two opposing wires touch in any way)… it should be fine.

2.) It certainly couldn’t hurt. Keep them plugged in and playing

3.) Canare is respected and known for making very solid products, definitely a step above GE connections.

I think that this is just trial and error. I never will forget when I spent about 40 bucks on an IXOS S-VIDEO cable…. My parents bought a new TV and I thought it would be perfect to conduct a shoot out. My father went behind the entertainment center and switched between the new cable, and the generic S-video he found at a thrift store. One cable was beating the hell out of the other…….. yep… you guessed it, the generic cable rocked. I was laughed at as well. It happens.

For various wire materials, bookmark this:


http://www.partsexpress.com/webpage.cfm&DID=7&WebPage_ID=40

Sean

[gidrah]

The soldering could be the problem. Don't rely on the solder to be a conductor. Get a good connection and only use the solder to keep it in place.

I've done about 5 different designs of cables so far. Some sound better than others. Some even sound, well...., let's just say I don't have any store bought cables in the 2-ch rig.

[ezc]

Just built my first diy interconnect! I looked for wire & all the usual stuff but decided to use what we have in the shop. We build M-1000 component & composite cables for customers & installs & use the monster quick loc m-1000 compression rca's for all the video cables. Built a set of 1m interconnects out of the m1000 composite cables. Hey there are lots of diy sites on line that use silver center conductor, the m1000 use a silver center conductor so lets give it a try! No soldering at all to build this cable. All I have to compare agenst is monster 100's. I Hope that my diy sounds better that the 100's. If I fail try & try again!