Fixed the CDP, now I need a new interconnect for around £30

When I was connecting the CDP back I was playing around with ICs and I have a problem:

My Ixos gamma sounds too harsh with stuff like Simon and Garfunkel, Johny Cash, Dylon etc. It sounds a bit thrill and there is an ovbious lack of detail, for example you can't hear some of the background noise of earlier recordings. With punk its full of energy but also a tad harsh.

My QNEX 1 sounds perfect with lighter recordings, very open, detailed but also has very smooth vocals and upper range, with the Zutons for example it sounds utterly brilliant, the saxaphone just shines through and you can hear every detail in the 'scwousa's' voices.

So I am looking for an IC for around £30 which sounds smooth, detailed energic but not too harsh. Any ideas?

 

Sorry this should be in HIFI

 

Make your own:
http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=13262&&source=14&doy=19m8
http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=1007&criteria=Phono Connectors&doy=19m8
Less than £15 per 1m pair...

 

Ha last time I tried that it was them ethernet speaker cable things, they were so bright it was hardly music (anybody still using them ). It was one of them TNT things.

What sort of sound do you get from them Maplin jobs?

 

I've got a bit of unterminated Audioquest Topaz cable if you want to try it, I've got enough interconnects already so I'm never gonna use it - got enough for a half-metre pair, so you'd just need plugs. I got it free so it's yours for nowt if you want it, I never tried it so don't know if it's any good of course.

 

Put a single layer of tissue paper over the tweeter, its free

Maplin also do this - http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=6227&criteria=silver&doy=19m8

 

Try making this one.


OVERVIEW: What we are trying to achieve, is to fabricate our own coaxial cable employing a very thin ribbon/foil signal
conductor in a predominately air dielectric, without going to the expense of sourcing pure copper ribbon/foil
from any of the usual non ferous metal merchants. We also require the same pure copper foil for the shield/
ground connection. The ribbon/foil MUST be pure copper, and NOT backed with any substance such as
Mylar. A good source of this foil used to be Raydex CDT CT 100, if you can still find some, this will do
fine. If not, I believe, but I'm not 100% sure, that Webro Wf100 includes a bare copper foil shield. When unwrapped, the foil must be at least 13 mm wide. This would indicate a
donor cable of at least 6.5 mm OD.

Shopping list:
4 x 1.2mtr of 6.3 mm polyolefin heat shrink.
4mtr of Raydex CT100, or any satellite cable with a pure unbacked copper foil shield.
1.5mtr of CAT 5.
4 x Neutric RCA phono plugs. No need to get the Pro Fi, the cheaper ones sound surprisingly good for less than £1 each.
5. 0.5mtr. 13 mm. Polyolefin heat shrink.
Method:
1 Slit the outer jacket from about 1.2mtr of the satellite cable and remove, to reveal the copper braid and shield underneath.
2 Remove the copper braid to reveal the copper foil shield beneath.
3 Carefully unwrap the copper foil from the cable, and put on one side.
4 With a hot air gun, shrink one of the 1.2mtr of heat shrink to its' max. to make a tube approx. 4 mm OD x 3 mm ID.
Leave to cool.
5 Take the copper foil and wrap it round the heat shrink tube you made; bit like rolling a cigarette. Cut the tube to the desired
length. (1mtr)
6 Cut the outside sheath from the CAT5. Take any one of the twisted pairs and untwist them, then remove the insulator from
one of the two wires that you have to reveal 1.5mtr of 24awg pure copper wire.
7 Helix the copper wire around the tube you made with a pitch of about 15 mm
8 Now take another piece of heat shrink and cut it to the same length, as the first tube.
9 Carefully pull the tube with the copper foil and CAT5 through the new length of heat shrink, making sure that there is about 5 mm
of the CAT5 wire showing at each end. Now hot air gun the heat shrink over the original tube. You now should have a coax.
cable minus the inner conductor.
10 Take another 1.2mtr of satellite cable, and extract more copper foil. Carefully smooth, flatten and polish the foil. Cut a ribbon
of foil, about 2 mm wide with a good pair of scissors. This is your signal conductor.
11 Push a single strand of CAT5 through the center or your cable, solder the copper foil ribbon to it, and carefully pull the
ribbon through the tube.
12 Terminate the cable with your favorite RCAs, solder the copper ribbon to the center pin ( hot ), and the CAT 5 wire to the ground. Check for shorts with a meter.
13 Repeat the above to make the other channel.

Congratulations, you have now made a genuine foil conductor, air dielectrc IC, for less than about £20.00.

Notes: It's been about 8 years since I last made one of these. You may have to do some research into satellite cables, to
find out which ones still have a pure, unbacked copper foil shield. Most, but not all, are now Mylar backed, which
is no good.
You may also wish to have a swear box handy, as the copper foil is very fragile and you may have to cut 4 or 5 ribbons
before you get a good one.
If you use the Neutric plugs I suggested, you will have to dispense with the spring and internal strain relief. Simply
use 13 mm heat shrink over most of the plug and onto the out side of the cable. It's worth mentioning at this point, that the cable is good enough to warrant much better plugs than the Neutrics. Try Silver Bullets, H.G.M. Labs. Silver Point, Audio Note ANP, or Cardas SLVR, if your budget will allow.

 

I use home-made Maplin interconnects - though they seem to have discontinued the type I've got, which seem very transparent and even across the frequency range. The star-quad looks like a good option, possibly better than the silver ones which I found were much harder to make (silver soldering) and were very bright in my system. You could also try www.canford.co.uk - if it's good enough for the Beeb etc..

 

Nice looking recipe ...maybe a bit complicated.

I've been using 3mm x 0.3mm 4n silver but not in a coax design, This makes a very smooth and detailed IC. I find most shielded ic sound worse than a unshielded ones not certain why, though could be the unequal conductors affecting the essentialy ac signal.

 

It's not as complicated as it first seems, once you get into it.
This was my first venture into foil conductors/air dielectric, about 10 years ago. I had to see if it worked without laying out a small fortune on having silver or copper cold rolled. Glad to say it did.

I agree with you, unshielded ic's do sound better, so none of my current ic's are shielded unless it's needed.
I don't think it's so much the unequal conductors, but more the close proximity of the signal to the return. That's why I used relatively thick walled heat shrink tubing, to get about 2mm of space between hot and return. If you make the same ic using 10awg thin walled ptfe tubing, in spite of the superior dielectric constant, the ic sounds inferior.

Anyway, I can recommend this ic to any of the lads out there, it'll get them away from their keyboards for a bit, I'm sure they won't be disappointed.

Graham.

PS. Will sound even better with a silver hot conductor, but doesn't want to be any wider than 2mm for the reasons I outlined above.

 

If you want a nice, professionally made and excellent performer, try the Ecosse Composer ~ around about the £30 mark. You can buy direct from Ecosse and get a bit of a discount. I think they also a money back deal if you don't like it.

 

Errrr......I've heard it .....no thanks

Some of my original wet string recipes including the zerocost cable were in my opinion better.

In fact there top of the range was trashed by a kit cable that I made for Rsand .....he thought it a good job he had not paid full whack for it ! It was a very well put together cable but as stiff as hell.

 

Look on ebay. There are plenty of enthusiasts making good quality interconnects for not much money. I got a 0.5m pair for a tenner, really well made, and the guy said that while he wouldnt claim it could beat ones costing hundreds, he didnt feel they were any worse. I have no reason to doubt it, having heard the results.