Re: DIY Source for High Quality Balanced Cable Parts - madisonears

I, too, am currently building a pair of balanced IC's. I have done a lot of research and already bought all the materials (I hope) to build several pairs for comparison of differnt conductors and construction methods.

My take on connectors is that the Vampire and Neutrik plugs are good quality. The Switchcraft are the cheapest, which leads me to question their quality, although I have no evidence to support that.

Although they use the same materials, the V and the N plugs are constructed differently and have different levels of quality. After careful examination through a high-powered magnifying glass, I noticed that the male pins of the V are much smoother and considerably larger diameter. The N pins are the same diameter from end to end, but the V pins have a shoulder on them right in front of where they pass through the plastic collar, which results in a larger diameter pin. On the hollowed out solder end, that results in a much thicker wall compared to the N pins. I do not know how that affects the sound of the plugs, but it certainly makes them stronger. I suspect that the smoother finish on the V pins will result in better contact and therefore better signal transfer, as well as better integrity of the gold plating.

The V plugs have a clamp style strain relief which allows a larger cable, almost 1/2" diameter, to pass into the body of the plug. The N plugs use a compression collet type of strain relief, and the largest diameter cable that it allows is around 3/8".

You can purchase both brands from Parts Connexion. The Switchcraft is available from Parts Express.

I suggest you build your own twisted or braided cable out of individual strands of hookup wire. The ground wire can be lower quality that the two signal wires because, unlike single-ended IC's, the ground wire does not carry any signal. You will be able to find much higher quality hookup wire than you can in an already assembled balanced type of cable. You do not need a very heavy gauge wire. I am making this first pair with 18ga OCC copper, which is probably about the biggest you'd want to use. Many cable manufacturers use 20 or even 22 ga. Anything smaller makes the cables a little fragile, and mechanical concerns begin to dominate construction techniques.

I expect to finish my IC's a day or so from now, so, if you can wait a bit longer, you can read my forthcoming post here about specific design, construction, and sonic elements.

Peace,
Tom E