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anyone know a supplier other than Audio Consulting in Switzerland for cotton sleeves as insulation for DIY cables ?
thanks
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Cotton Piping Size 1
Our Price: $0.22 per Yard.
• Contents: 100% cotton
• Width: 6/32''See link
Silk is harder to find.
Regards
James
You could also use long shoe laces that are made of 100% cotton, cut the ends and pass the wires through them...
I'm going to ask the dumb question...but what's the big deal with cottom sleeves? All material sleeving has the same effect of eliminating resonate harmonic distortion. It doesn't have to be cotton...it can be carbon fiber, fiberglass cloth, silk, etc....they all offer the same effect for harmonics. If you are in the states I highly recommend that you look into fiberglass cloth sleeving. Mike Percy sells a very good cloth in many different sizes. It sounds fantastic on bare wire.
Same deal with Teflon.Yes, cotton offers the additional mechanical damping, but it's really the dielectric properties that are attractive.
If that is the case then I suggest you take a look at the different grades of fiberglass cloth.
Alan,I'm curious, why the fiberglass cloth? Lower dielectric than cotton/air/teflon?
Not really...sonically cotton and fiberglass sound the same. I think you are making too much of dielectrics. In plastics the dampening property of the insulator is important for altering resonate properties (voicing the cable design), but in fabrics there really is no difference. The big issue with the different grades of fabric are heat, flame resistance, etc....resonate properties are not an issue. Fiberglass cloth is usually a lot cheaper....I think for a 1/8" (12 / 10ga) sleeve is something like 45 cents per foot unless you buy in bulk and then it's half that price. I have been using fiberglass as a wire insulator and cable insulator for years in my designs and always had very good results. I tried cotton way back when Yamamura first introduced the OEM wire back in the early 90's. It was very good and different for the time, but after trial and error you always find something better for less :) My suggestion is to try the fiberglass and see what you think....Percy Audio sells by the foot. Make sure you clean (mirror finish) and treat the wire with Progold 100% solution prior and you are in business.
Interesting. Thanks for the detail Alan.I respect your position as a cable manufacturer and no doubt your success is due to your insights and philosophy. I've only come into this in the past few years and have no formal education in electronics and very little in physics.
To my ears, hence my thinking, the dielectric is more important than physical damping. Since the signal runs on on the outside of the conductor, the material nearest the surface of the conductor must have a significant influence - especially in its electrical properties. For this reason, I also think the surface of the conductor is of upmost importance as well (e.g., Oyaide plugs).
Physical damping does make a difference in my system, but that difference is so small it's tempting to attribute it to my mood rather than the cable!
Anyway, my $0.02, without actually trying fiberglass cloth. I'll definitely give it a whirl - there are many online resources that offer Teflon-impregnated fiberglass weaves - and see how that sounds.
just picked some up for audio consulting silver hookup wire.
thanks for all your response !
the reference mod page looks as if it is exactly what I want ...
I made several IC's from Chris' recipe a few yrs ago ...the silver / teflon double helix around the air core of 5/16" tubing of teflon again ...at the time I was reasonably pleased with the results , but now I find it is too bright on my current equip...which is better than I had then
so the high purity silver thin gauge wire is languishing , I have decided to try spkr cables , hence the need for the cotton sleeve ...I am thinking looser fit ...lots of air ..the best dielectric around it ...
anyone had any experience with this configuration ?
I've made speaker cables with 4 strands/phase of RAM's Audio Consulting 24awg silver wire in a litz braided of four 2mm cotton sleeves. Very nice. Unshielded designs like this sound more detailed and airy with a 1" band of ERS cloth wrapped around either end.
if so, what was basic design?
PartsConnexion has cotton-sleeved silver and copy hook-up wire from Jupiter. See the link below.I just made some ICs from some cotton-clad silver from ChrisVH, wrapped it around 1/8" cotton clothesline a la Chris' Fine Silver ICs, then used cotton bandaging to secure/insulate it before covering it in Teflon Techflex. Haven't listed to it yet, but it should sound pretty good!
chris VH's cotton sleeved silver wire is amazing, mate it with some good plugs, and you get a really great sound.
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check out my foobar playlist at http://www.last.fm/user/tiberian001/
I got mine from Mike at Electrum Audio (info@electrumaudio.com). I got some round sleeving that I used for 23 ga and 30 ga silver wire and some tubular braid with an ID of about 4mm that I used for silver ribbon. Give him a try.
I find that the ordinary fabric supply stores carry stuffing and sleeving of cotton for "piping". Sleeving is as you'd figure; stuffing is like rolled cotton gauze bandages. I've used them and they work.
thanks for that info ...what I want is hollow tube like and made from cotton that I can use to insulate bare wire for DIY projects ...
Chris VH sells silver wire w/ the cotton sleeve but I just need the sleeve part ..the piping you referred to , do you think it would fit the bill ?
I have used 100% cotton braided clothesline rope. It has a poly core which can be used to pull the wire through the center of the sleeve. Just make sure it's 100% cotton.
I think it would be almost impossible to feed a wire (especially fine guage) through a cotton sleeve. The wire would catch and want to poke through the weave. If you are set on using cotton insultated wire, I'd suggest its better to buy it that wayBTW another hearty recommendation for the VH silver/cotton wire - I have also made ICs with this stuff, wrapped around a corron rope core and using Eichmann bullets, and they are very good
It is relatively easy to snake 1-5 strands of fine wire (up to around 24awg each) through a small 2mm cotton sleeve. For 1-2 weak strands, wrap the wire into the business end of a small drill bit and secure with a wrap of telflon plumbers tape. The smooth end of the drill bit moves easily thru the sleeve. For 3-5 strands of stronger wire, wrap the tips tightly together with teflon tape without the drillbit. In the same way you can pass up to 20 strands through a 4mm sleeve.
Chris' cotton is a tight wrap, if I see it correctly. These cotton sleeves (or the stuffing) will not work that way for you. They're too fat for that if you're using something on the order of 18-32 AWG wires.They would work as backing for a set of wires (what I did with the piping/stuffing) or over a 1/4" or larger set of wires for the sleeving.
If you're thinking of duping Chris' stuff, I think you're out of luck unless you laboriously wrap with cotton thread or cotton gauze. Not worth the work. Pay that piper; he's worth it!
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