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I built two pairs of the interconnects Chris Venhaus describes on his site. PRetty much followed his instructions by the book, plus read a few recent updates here (hotglue, cotton twine instead of cotton balls, etc.)
I built a pair of 12" interconnects for CD to Pre-amp and then a pair of 42" (well, one channel is shorter, but more about that later).
some photos of the project are on a web page I just put up to keep track of my system changes/improvements at
http://didnt.doit.wisc.edu/audio/index.html
beer can on the images is for scale only :-)
Two weeks ago I completed the DIY cat-5 speaker cable bi-wire project, and the improvement in terms of imaging and sound stage detail were dramatic. It wasn't hard to justify the $100 it would take to build the interconnects to improve the signal path from CD to amps after hearing this, plus I read it was easier to build these ICs than it was to do the speaker cables.
In terms of difficulty building these ICs, I would rate the part of wrapping teflon tape around the silver wire the hardest, especially the first few times when you don't have much practice yet. It was good to start with the really short wires.
I use duct tape to hold things in place, plus a really basic jig I clamped to the kitchen table. See photos for that.
The materials I bought were $40 for the 0.008" teflon coated pure silver wire, $20 for two sets of Dayton Audio RCA plugs (I may try some better plugs once I get other parts in my system upgraded), about $5 for 8 rolls of teflon plumbers tape (got 3 left over), $1.59 for a roll of cotton twine at Wallmart, and about $2 for heat shrink tubing, plus about $25 for 25ft of teflon tubing (got plenty left over for more ICs), plus about $4 for some good silver solder. I also got 25 feet of 32awg copper transformer wire to try this recipe with considerably cheaper wire for less critical connections (tape deck, computer)
Tools I needed:
volt meter
knife (to cut tube, strip silver wire insulation)
coat hanger (to stuff twine into tube)
scissors (cut twine, siver wire)
tweezers (to pull silver wire out of tube end)
tiny drill (for holes to feed wire inside tubing at ends)
soldering iron
small clamps
some long pieces of wood trim, two short blocks
two large wood screws that fit into hose ends
duct tape for everything else
candle (for heat shrink)
Initially I tried to push too much twine into the tubes at once. I learned to reduce the batch size and was able to get it packed nice and tight without air space.
Wrapping the sliver wire around the tube was pretty easy, except I didn't have enough room to use the wire straight off the spool. I had to guess the length I needed to get to the other end and cut off that much. I wasted a few inches of precious silver wire that way.
Wrapping the teflon tape required to take one end of the wire off my jig, but once I figured out which way I had to unroll the tape to keep tension, it worked quite well. Plus, I was surprised how well this tape clings to the tube. I only recall using this tape in pipe threads and it was quite a pain for that application. I put 4 layers of this tape on the tube, plus a few extra layers on the ends once I had put the hot glue into the tube ends with the wire ends in their final location.
Soldering the tiny ends was pretty easy with the Dayon Plugs, and the heat shrink was real fun to apply - I had no idea about this stuff before reading about these DIY cables. A candle works just fine to get the rubber to shrink to size.
The second set of wires was for my preamp to mono blocks and had to be much longer. When I was cutting the silver wire for the first one, I did my math: 3.5x4 = 14 ft, plus 1.5x4 = 6 - total 20 feet. I had 5 feet of wire to spare. Well it turns out, that I actually had to use 4.5feet for the 3.5 feet, which put me to 18 feet for the two long interconnects. Add 6 feet plus the amount I wasted in the initial guess work to get the right lenght for the 1 foot interconnects, and you'll see why my second long interconnect is actually 4" shorter than the other...
I still completed them and tired them out before taking the longer one apart again to match them both at 3 feet 2" which was tight, but still usable on the left monoblock.
But now the best part - what did these ICs do for me? I first replaced the typical $12 Ratshack gold interconnect from CD to preamp, something like 4 feet of it while only 1 foot was needed. The short piece I made was almost too short to be bent without getting a kink in the tubing, but after a short period of bending it let me connect it. The Dayton Audio plugs need to be uncrewed to actually slide on, which wasn't so easy afer having heat shrink all over them... I cut back the rubber and was able to secure the cable well.
I powered up the CD player, put in the favorite testing CDs, and listened in awe. Considerably more bass! Detail in the high range was dramatically improved. Almost as big of a step as the cat-5 speaker wire.
Then I powered down again to hook up the new ICs from Pre-amp to Odyssey monos. The original wire there was the same kind of $12 type RCA, but it was separated into two solo runs, and not curled up in a ball.
Listening to this, I noticed another increase in resolution, but not as dramatic as with the short CD player IC. Perhaps the different lengths of the wires had some minor impact here, or the system is sounding so well overall that it is getting harder for any one single change to make as big of an impact as previous improvements did.
I matched the RCAs in length and didn't notice any difference before/after. I made sure the silver wire was spaced exactly as prescribed, so maybe it's a matter of the Dayton plugs, some poor soldering, or my ears just were out for lunch when I made the change.
Still, the overall impact on the system was rather dramatic. I can't imagine spending commercial prices on interconnects. Actually, a few months ago I would have shied back from spending $100 on the part s to make these wires. The cat-5 project showed me how much wires can affect the sound of a system, and that's why I decided to move ahead with the ICs. I was pleasantly suprised by the result. Now I'm wondering what a $80 pair of RCA plugs could do better than the $10 Daytons. Anyone do a direct comparison with this type of IC?
DIY power cords are next - I have all the parts needed for 4 different cords (2 mono blocks, 1 CD player, 1 pre-amp). I'll report back with the impact on my system.
Peter

Tweaker's Asylum

Review C. VenHaus DIY silver interconnects