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In Reply to: Need suggestions for best DIY IC's for my set-up posted by rich121 on December 8, 2006 at 23:29:09:
I've put together a full set of cotton insultated 28 AWG silver, using the recipe at the link, wire from VH Audio, and Eichman bullet plugs. IMHO they are very goodMy speaker cables by the way are braided Cat5, description available at VH Audio also. They are fine, no better or worse than the comercial cables I've used
However I don't quite get what's bugging you - your gear is certainly not budget level, so why the reluctance to buy comparable cables? Is it just the strong whiff of BS that so many adverts carry? DIY is a way of life, not always a budget decision!
Follow Ups:
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here it is
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Nice and organized, very well explained and nice pics.
Did you find a difference after having cryoed?Rick
That web site with the great photos and explanations is not mine! But its the best one I've found to explain the process. I really wish I could remember whose it is to give proper creditThe recipe is basically the same as the one Chris VenHaus has had poste on his site for a long time. My wire is not cryo'ed so I don't know what that would do for the ICs
Thanks for the info..
Each piece of what I have in my system, except maybe for the amp, is the best in it's catagory (for what I paid).. I am very budget conscious, but, on the other hand, I want the best for my money.
It is amazing the many different less expensive peices of equipment that rival or surpass others costing many more times.
Cables are what my system is lacking, I didn't want to spend thousands on cables, and have to settle for less quality equipment. I have read so many times about popular audio cable companies getting "caught" when someone tears apart there expensive cables to find the used cable cost many many times less. I think cables are a rip off at certain levels, and that is why I posted. I am hoping to be able to make some nice cables at a large savings..
I am the same with turntables.. I don't see anything made now, that compares to vintage decks for the same dollar.. that is why I own vintage.. and will be modding them also, especially the G99 and the Empire.
Thanks,
Rick
I certainly agree about the system-dependent effects.My most recent IC recipe; 2-Cardas 17 ga. Silver (source is Michael Percy) in the Chris Venhaus Hyperflex; the hyperflexes twisted as a pair and inserted into teflon bellows tubing (McMaster Carr). The better Cardas RCA plugs, 3:1 polyolefin adhesive heat shrink (The Cable Organizer). Not cheap, but my best DIY recipe so far. Neutral, clean.
It depends upon so many synergistic factors involving not just your electronic components, but the electronic atmosphere in which they function and even the mechanical situation (vibrational). So it appears that nobody can tell you with absolute certainty.FWIW, I think you are right to shop hard and be skeptical. My budget is so amazingly low compared to yours, but I'd do it anyway. So I ended up DIYing a great deal of my cabling. This helped me test out concepts and configurations, learn about my own system/situation and listening preferences, and decide on where to go next - all while saving much money!
That doesn't mean that I stopped there by any means. I just started there and found my way to what I want. There is one cable builder whose stuff is in several places in my system now, but he's custom building too. So it isn't all about money or me for my situation either.
Cabling is so important that it's amazing how bad great equipment can sound because of it. I won't go into the theory, as I bet you've heard it all.
Here's what I found:
1) strongest impact in my system was speaker cabling
2) second strongest turns out to be AC cabling and all the tweaking that goes with it makes that a rival for first
3) ICs make a definite difference, but the effects aren't usually as pronounced as the above
4) ICs can even make a difference in eliminating "digititis", or at least the RFI intermodulation effects that are confused with that term.There are several recipes for Cat 5 speaker cabling. The most difficult is Chris Ven Haus' original massive recipe; the simplest are the simple versions of TNT-audio.com's recipes. Both work well in my system and in others, as you'll read here, and both permit experimentation with cumulative wire gauges for biwiring. Neither is truly "cheap" any longer, but by audio standards they are all dirt cheap!
As for ICs, assuming you want analog, there are again many recipes. CVH has one that is so well thought of that it's foolish not to consider it a starting and potentially end point. But the easiest by far is Greg Weaver's Silver Signal Tape (or the copper version), also a good (though not necessarily stellar) starting point for DIY.
At this point in my system I've replaced both with Beryllium Copper speaker and ICs by Joe Mazzaglia of auricleaudiodesign@hotmail.com and I'm very very pleased with it. Again, custom built and not for everyone, but very detailed and smooth and not expensive by audio standards.
I've got at least 5 different designs of PCs in my system and won't even go into that for now, other than to urge you to consider your power cords as much as anything else.
Just some thoughts..... YMMV
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