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Model: | DIY Silver Interconnects |
Category: | Cable |
Suggested Retail Price: | materials cost about $80 |
Description: | 32 ga. .9999 Silver Teflon insulated wire spiraled around Teflon core |
Manufacturer URL: | DIY by Chris VenHaus |
Model Picture: | View |
Review by Detlof (A) on February 26, 2007 at 11:43:19 IP Address: 83.78.141.103 | Add Your Review for the DIY Silver Interconnects |
Since I am happy with the general wiring, which is fine tuned to my system, wires which are not commercially available by the way but made by a friend in very small quantities, I decided to try my hand at a pair of ics to hook up my beloved Otari to my system. At the beginning those ICs were a bitch to make, I did not seem to get the spacing to stay in place, as described by Chris until I slid a metal rod into the teflon tubing and secured it on both ends. From then on it was easy. I terminated with Eichmann silverbullets at the Jolida end and with Neutrik XLRs at the Otari side. Originally I had used a 250 £ top British cable with the Otaris and in my first test I simply replaced one channel with my newly made cable. The result was quite surprsing: The side with the "DIY" seemed sometimes to play a tad louder than I was used to and Martha Argerich's piano, which was recorded slightly to the right, seemed occasionally to move a few inches more center. It was a disconcerting experience and I switched back to the Brit, listening to this tape while I finished my second silver cable. When I had done, much faster than my first one, thanks to the rod, I rewound the tape and settled in to some serious listening. It was quite amazing how my old Otari suddenly sprung to life!The soundstage opened up in width and depth and Martha's piano remained firmly off center, where it belonged. I realised now, that the apparent difference in loudness from before was due to the much better rendition of fast transients of the DIY, which this music has plenty of. My Jolida is no slouch in rendering those with authority and for the first time I realised, that my Otari was on par with the rest of my system. It was as if a few levels of veil had gone, a certain background grainyness had disappeared, you could -for the first time- easily differentiate between the violas and the celli, the violas and the violins in the string section and brass sounded as brassy as it should. I discoverd the repeated sound of a triangle in the Liszt concerto, which I had never heard before. This is how this cable renders music transparent and well layered. Bass was excellent, but here the Brit was no slouch either, yet also here the silver cable gave a somewhat better definition. The smack of a kettle drum seemed sort of "rounder". In short, this cable, if done right, is highly musical, it has "prat", speed and definition, its rendering of transients belongs to the best I have heard so far. There is no trace of coloration as far as I could discern. It seems perfectly neutral to these here ears. Musical instruments not only sound right, but also stay firm in their well defined space. One of the advantages of analog is, that the aura of instruments, if recorded right, does not get lost. Chris' cable brings it right. Bass is good, the midrange ok, the highs are impeccable. As far as my old tapemachine goes, a revelation. Thank-you Chris!
Product Weakness: | takes patience to do right |
Product Strengths: | Speed, definition,resolution, rendering of transients from ppp to fff are perfect, no trace of smearing anywhere, no apparent phase shifts, lots of prat, highly musical. |
Associated Equipment for this Review: | |
Amplifier: | modded and tube rolled Jolida JD 1000RC |
Preamplifier (or None if Integrated): | None |
Sources (CDP/Turntable): | Otari Tapemachine for this test |
Speakers: | Quad 63 with Gradient subs |
Cables/Interconnects: | various |
Music Used (Genre/Selections): | 7.5 ips tape DGG Chopin amd Liszt Piano Concertos, Martha Argerich, Claudio Abbado, London SO |
Room Comments/Treatments: | none |
Time Period/Length of Audition: | 2-3 hours |
Other (Power Conditioner etc.): | PS Audio P -600, Gradient electronic X-over |
Type of Audition/Review: | Product Owner |
Follow Ups:
I have built at least 25 pairs while experimenting, using Chris VenHaus's base recipe in the last 3 or so years. Tried different wire (silver in different gauges, Allumiloy, Gold alloy, gold, copper, etc), every dieletric I could come up with, shielded, active shielding, different RCA connectors, etc. With the silver bullets and silver wire (good combo by the way), the ICs take some burn-in time with my experience before they will really show their capability sonically. See if you can find someone to put the ICs on a cable burning device. Even a Frycleaner set at its highest setting (for a week) will make a very noticable difference when you insert the cable back into your system. Enjoy your new ICs!Chris
Have you made any balanced XLR versions?Any observations, tips or recommendations?
And which would be the best xlr connectors to use with them?
I have made many pairs of balanced XLR sets. BUT, the recipe I ended up with is a take off of Chris VH's original design. All of my ICs are a DBS (DIELECTRIC-BIAS SYSTEM) design off of Chris's original design. Also the wire I use now is not silver. So the XLR connectors work excellent with the wire I use now which is Alumiloy made by JPS Labs. The connectors I use for balanced ICs are from Vampire. For single ended I use Silver Bullets. I have found that the Vampire connectors are very inexpensive for the performance/sonics.The best XLR connectors, that is a tough one. There are many real high end XLR connectors. They can cost $60+ a piece. The best that I have tried are the Furutech FP-601(M) and FP-602(F). Chris sells them on his site (www.vhaudio.com). In my opinion, they sound a bit different/better then the Vampire connectors, but not enough of a difference when I was comparing them to use them. Chris VH outlines how to wire up the XLR cable on his DIY site.
I am not sure what information you are looking for so here are just a few more tips that I think may be of interest. I like and use Cardas Quad Eutectic solder, no matter the conductors used. Burn the cables in before use, it will still take a few days with burned in cables for them to start to come into their own. Silver wire can take up to 200 hours of burn-in before really opening up and smoothing out (otherwise they are a bit bright and thin at first, especially in the HF). The best center core (and I have experimented with everything I could emagine and read that others tried) is using the teflon center core from Belden 89259 or Belden 1695A. Be sure to remove the center core wire before using unless you are building a DBS cable. It takes alot of time to build these cables correctly, it is worth using the best materials you can find and afford. Above is a pic of the Vampire XLR and a no-connector cable attached to a Proceed DAP (dac) I built using Chris VH's base recipe.
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