Marvey's Cable Rolling Adventures

Excellent posts, @Puma Cat

I'm still loving my DIY interconnects made from Gotham GAC-1 UltraPro cable and KLE Copper Harmony connectors.

 

These cables remind me very much of my DNM speaker cables, where one conductor is spaced well away from the other and the DNMs perform well likely for the same reasons that Marvey has pointed out. DNM speaker cables look a lot like FM antenna wire, but they use a superior dieletric and solid core conductor, like Marvey's cables do.

Here's a pic of the DNM interconnect and speaker cables; my speaker cables use a better banana plug than shown here, more like a Nordost banana plug that is hollow to minimize the amount of metal in the plug and maximize the surface to volume ratio; they're nice plugs, BTW.



Here's a cross section of the cable showing some of the properties it brings with it's design. What is shown here is a complete pair; you split the cable via a groove molded down the middle sufficiently to reach channel/speaker.


For those interested, more info on the principles behind DNM cables here:
http://www.dnm.co.uk/cables.html

 

Capacitance affects sound by rolling off high frequencies; this is why when longer runs of interconnect are used, it's important to use a low cap cable.

 

It absolutely does, the dielectrics in insulation definitely impact the sound. There are engineers that will say the best insulator is either a vacuum or air. The only difficulty with air is that it's impractical to implement in most practical, real-world use scenarios; thus the "air tubes" construction approach some cable companies use.

 

That's correct, and that's why Tara Labs made a cable called The Zero that had the conductor running in an evacuated tube, i.e., a vacuum. Only problem was they cost $14,900/meter.

 

Seems like you could do that for cheaper... If I ever end up with a vacuum pump and other supplies, I would try that.

 

thanks for posting your cable experience pumacat, very instructive. I've DIYed some cables with extra low capacitance, and some solid core pure silver with silver plated eichmann clone plugs and didn't get much improvement.. I tend to think you get more benefit from geometry and shielding.. the current kabusa spiral air I'm using are litz with counter wound litz shield and seem to be the best rca I've used so far.. it's small enough differences that I will probably stop at this price level.. my system is very cramped with cables near each other so shielding might be more important for me than for others

 

They worked, and that's all that matters. What is the clear material, some sort of tape?

 

It turns out it was a fairly challenging engineering task, and it was designing the RCA plugs that would allow both evacuation and then hold the vacuum that turned out to be really difficult. You can read about it here:
Skip down to "Cut to 2006".
https://www.stereophile.com/cables/1206tara/index.html

 

A LONG time ago, I made some cables using a couple pieces of masking tape. Probably used rat shack mag wire and RCA jacks (this was before the internet if you can imagine that). Problem was they fell apart after a year or so, but until they fell apart I thought they sounded pretty good. I think the recipe came from PS Audio.
Marvey's cable reminded me of those cables.
BTW, because of this thread I "won" an auction today for some Zu interconnects, curious to see how they sound compared to my non masking tape diy cables.

 

I loved the Audioquest Colorado IC, they offered better extension at both ends & sounded clearer than any other IC I had, but there are better cables out there. The ones I heard made the Colorado sound down right un-listenable .

Not cheap, but they do really make improvements the higher end you go. Just gotta know which way up to go (hint: thick upocc silver).

 

If you use thick/stiff enough wire and your rack is reasonably tidy then you could probably avoid the insulator entirely. I'm sure I saw coat hangers mentioned

 

Congrats on winning your auction. Which model Zu interconnects did you get? Also, please post your impressions here when you get them. Cheers.

 

Thanks
A set of the Wyldes are on their way to me now. But I'm going to be out of town for the next week and a half, so all impressions will not be for a bit.
It seems like Zu has a bunch of old stock of the original Missions and Wylde IC's, and are slowly selling them on ebay.

I also have a hagtech frykleaner I started and never finished, may actually finish building it, and use it to burn in the cable.

Right now my interconnect is a diy cable made of UPOCC Teflon wire with inexpensive RCA's, star quad.

 

Yeah, I've bought a couple of pair of Zu Mission from that auction site; a good way for Zu to sell off excess older stock. Definitely a cable worth auditioning.

 

Finally able to use the Pangea XLR and RCA cables in my system with the Code Sex and HD650. These headphones are smooth enough that the cables don't exhibit any harshness and the soundstage is pushed away even further. This sounds so speaker like it's crazy!

 

I use Zu Wylde between my CD player and the Yggdrasil. From the Yggdrasil to the preamp and to the amp, I used my own interconncets made of silver wire, teflon tubes (larger than the wire so that there is air around the wire), and Switchcraft connectors. These come to < $20 a pair. I posted about how to make them here if anyone is interested: http://superbestaudiofriends.org/index.php?threads/building-silver-interoconnects.2355/

Here's how they look like:

 

It always makes me laugh when Reddit claims all cables sound identical.