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I want to construct some but am not sure where to start. What have been your best DIY RCA ICs? Please recommend materials/parts and where to buy them. Thanks!
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I second ChrisVH's design. I have four sets of fine silver/Eichmann bullet ICs in my system. There is an excellent tutorial at the link
I like this construction as well, even though I'm not much of a cable guy. I built a couple of sets following this tutorial using Neotech UP-OCC copper. I didn't use Eichmanns either (used some Yarbo RCAs from vt4c).
Nothing against Chris's cables, but I prefer more conventional construction.
Essentially I like a fundamentally sound cable that meets the standard parameters for interconnects ... in particular low capacitance and adequate shielding.
My standard cable is fairly easy to make and broadly speaking exceeds what you could buy for the same basic cost.
Connectors: Canare F-10:
non-magnetic brass with nickel plating on barrel and gold on connecting surfaces, teflon dielectric, solder termination. About $5 each
Cable: Mogami 2534:
Star-Quad construction reduces noise by geometry; full coverage served copper shield; capacitance 29.6 pF per foot; cross-linked polyethelyne dielectric; high flexibility and low handling noise. This is the cable that the vast majority of sound stages, mobile studios, television studios, and recording studios worldwide use for audio and microphone signals; places like the BBC and CBC use it extensively. Mogami is manufactured in Japan. Price varies but generally about a buck a foot.
"Star Quad" is a geometry that uses 4 cables for two signal lines; connect 2 of the blue and 2 of the white for positive and negative on each end.
Connect one end of the served braid to the shield (negative) side, mark this end with a short piece of shrink tubing for identification. Leave the other end floating. When hooking up equipment, connect the shield-connected end to the output and the open shield end to the input.
Belden makes a similar cable for about the same price, but I find the Mogami superior. If you order from the right people, you can choose from about a dozen colors, but the black jacket is stocked almost anywhere.
Broadly speaking a L & R pair of cables have lower inductance if they are close together, so popping them inside techflex is commonly done.
Once you build these cables, you will have a set that is better than the majority of sub=$100 interconnects on the market. They are not terribly expensive to build; a 1 meter pair will end up costing you around $30~35.
You can either stop there, or use it them as your baseline for further cable evaluations. Any cable that can't equal the Canare/Mogami 2534 doesn't deserve your money, and you will find many that fail that test.
Johnny2Bad, the pricing is amazing. To help me establish a point of reference, which ICs (brand and model) did you replace these with?
I agree with using Mogami 2534. I have been using this cable for years and I am quite happy. It can be used for log runs if you like having your amp at the speakers.
So it goes.........
Go to Chris Ven Haus' site, look at his DIY designs, and also look at the materials he sells. Good advice!
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