Cable Building

Ok, so tell me that I'm not supposed to be reminded of:

"...for though it has many omissions and contains much that is apocryphal, or at least wildly inaccurate, it scores over the older, more pedestrian work in two important respects. First, it is slightly cheaper; and secondly it has the words DON'T PANIC inscribed in large friendly letters on its cover.”

Anyway, you're very close to becoming the bonkers cable person around here- that one looks solid AF, love the splitters, and more purple is always heartening. How long until we see a lavishly illustrated set of beginner's cable fettling guides around here?

 

Oh, that absolutely was the intent!

Thanks!

I could do something like that ... after I get done with my backlog of other stuff I wanted to do (my AOIP/NAI comparison/tutorial, the little amp comparison I'm just adding my Jotunheim impressions too/comparison with, the active cable stuff I said I'd share ...) ... so probably in the new year.

 

Finally got some of my supplies in for my USB cable.

• Three pack of USB 15ft cables (24awg) - http://a.co/9yNMS4M
• USB ends (x2 for mistakes) - http://www.ebay.com/itm/112144340860?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT
  
• Paracord (orange) - http://a.co/bd8DZRz
• Paracord (grey) - http://a.co/cJw3JhL
• Ferrite Bead (get this bigger size, mine were just big enough) - http://a.co/g0BluCe
  
• Left over heatshrink from previous projects, would use this if you didn't have any - http://a.co/2c1hMsk
• Soldering Iron
• Lighter/Heat gun

This idea was inspired by @Torq saying that making your own USB cable is best done with a shielded usb cable just having power ran though one cord and data though the other as the cabling will retain the proper geometry windings as it should be right off the bat compared to winding your own cable trying to make sure you have the right twists per turn and I'm sure he could elaborate more as it's WAY over my head but said this process was the easiest and I was hankering for a little DIY project anyways.

I first tried to just slide the cable through the paracord (obviously with the 7 strands removed) which would've made life a lot easier but the sheathing was too thick so I just spliced both ends and covered the internals with a little piece of heat shrink to help it move down the paracord.




Pulling the two pieces apart from each other cut the cord perfectly and I didn't have to do it by hand. Went ahead and heat shrinked the other end for shits and giggles.

- Fully un-sheathed wire with headshrink on both ends



Now for the most tedious part. My heat shrink wasn't thin enough to just go though the paracord so I had to just go inch by inch. Literally both wires took me a solid 2-3 hrs for this part. My hands were sore.



Is this the final result with both wires twisted to together and ferrite bead on both ends of the power cable (grey paracord).



I cut both 15ft cords (having one left if you got the three pack from amazon) and after all was said and done by trimming and making my cable to the length I needed it's probably 8ft which is perfect for the application it will be used in with my Audio GD NFB-11. I'm still waiting for my ends from eBay and will update this post accordingly.

I would like to give a HUGE thank you to @Torq for putting up with my stupidity and this cord probably even being built wrong, but I've had fun and will update once the ends get in from eBay.

 

Using existing, to-spec, USB cable, and simply using two separate runs, one for data, the other for power, makes for a technically simpler build. You don't have to worry about achieving/maintaining the appropriate impedance across the transmission-line that comprises the data-pair. It can be done manually, but it's probably not the best place to start if what you're looking for is simply to separate power and data lines.

There are a surprising number of expensive "USB" cables that just run parallel interconnect/hook-up wire for the USB data pair with no regards to length matching, twist-rate, dielectric, proper shielding, spacing and so on, differential propagation rate and so on. This typically results in signal reflection issues that cause bit-level errors (and the longer the cable, the worse those will get). Such errors are not correctable with the USB 2.0 Audio standard, so are best avoided.

Doing it the way you're doing it should result in a properly working cable.

A hint for running paracord over shielded cables ...

Slide the shield down about an inch and a half, so it extends past the end of the internal wire-bundle. Twist it to a point. Round off the end, make sure no wires are poking out, and then tin it (dipping it in a solder pot is the easiest/best way to do this). You can then slide it easily through the paracord several inches at a time. You can also use a sheathing tool on the end of that tinned shield if you have one, though it's not really necessary.

I'll post a picture illustrating what I'm talking a bit later.

 

Here you go ... twisted, tinned, shielding over the end of the cable to make it easier to thread through standard #550 paracord. Just make sure you get the tinned end of the twisted shield nice and smooth. Or, use a sheathing-tool, as pictured. Makes for MUCH less hassle (and no interior fraying of the paracord!):

 

Tempted to make another cable just to try that out! Would've made my life a lot easier.

 

It's well worth taking, say, 6 feet of paracord and trying various techniques to get it to feed. It can be fairly absent minded "in-front-of-the-TV" or "while-listening-to-music" type activity. I know the first paracord-sheathed cable I built consumed more than half the total build-time just in getting the bloody paracord over the wire. I swore I'd never do another and was just going to use TechFlex instead ... but that's too microphonic for headphone cables.

 

Sometimes I'll wrap ends in teflon tape to hold things together and make them easier to slide through sleeving.

 

This is the way I do it, too.

 

I did this until I started pushing the limits of how thick a bundle I was trying to sheath.

When I first started I didn't think to use teflon/plumbers tape ... and that was a cluster!

 

Have you considered investing in a loom?

 

This is a fundamentally similar "interleaved dual quad-helix "geometry to the HD-6XX and Utopia cables I've posted before, this time built for the Abyss. They're still using the same high-purity OCC copper* wiring, although larger gauge here. Connectors are Furutech 3-pin mini XLRs. Then there's some selective electron beam irradiation*. The final assembly is cryogenically processed:



Compared to the stock Abyss cable this is:

• Much less annoying (the stock cable is two entirely separate, and barely manageable, runs of JPS Labs rather shiny and somewhat stiffer "Alumiloy").
• Doesn't keep getting under the wheels of my chair.
• Quieter (microphonically).
• Significantly less cheap-looking (even though the stock cable is, I believe, a $1,200 part).

What surprises me, though, is that it definitely sounds different to the stock cable. I usually find cable effects, if/when I can hear them at all, to be extremely minor. In this case, I noticed a difference immediately. Some "as close to proper as possible" A/B testing will be necessary here before I say anything else about sound though.

--

*I'm going to do a set of these for my LCD-4 tomorrow ... and given the irradiated nature of the thing it's probably fitting that I literally make the cable glow in the dark.

 

Might be impedance effects?

Always wondered what does cryo actually do to a cable though.

 

Might be a lot of things ... including my imagination* ... but I doubt it's down to impedance changes in the cable. That'd be more believable if I was using marginal amps, if it was a dynamic driver, or if the changes there were likely to be significant, but none of those are the case. I'll measure both cables to be sure, but I doubt it's that.

In practical terms, it gradually makes it very, VERY cold, and then very slowly warms it up again ...

Cryogenic treating does lots of things (depending on the details and the material involved) - whether any are beneficial to audio (or audible at all) is another matter. But under an STM you can see changes in crystal structures/boundaries if you compare before/after. In other field of engineering it can affect various physical aspects of the material being treated (by no means always beneficially), including increasing tensile strength, improving ductility, reducing stress factors and so on.

--

*This is the most likely scenario. The next most probable is that plugging/unplugging cables has removed some oxidation from the connectors. After that ... well, we'll see.

 

Yeah I was just curious about the sonic effects. Not easy to get anything cryo here, and most cables come pre cryo-ed. Maybe when the itch hits might make 2 identical cables and try get 1 cryo'ed to see if there's any difference.

 

I built a cable last night with Norne's DIY Copper Wire

Overall I like it a lot, even if it's more than I usually spend on raw materials. It has a really cool look with the semi-transparent black, and a very nice feel too it.

However, flexibility is only ok (fine for desktop/home) but I wouldn't use this for portable use. Also the insulation will melt away when soldering the ends, not a big deal for big or mini XLR as seen here, but may cause complications with a crowded 2.5mm TRRS and such. If you don't care about a smaller gauge or OCC, the BTG wire I used to hardwire my HE-6's is a better and cheaper option for more flexibility and thinner feel, and I'll likely go back to the for my next portable cable.

 

I've been reading this thread too long, this video and "blah blah shape storage of energy" made me think about audio cables

 

My 2.5mm jack modded DT770 with a cable I made real quick. I was testing some paracord sizes.. 425 seems to be the sweet spot.

 

I like how you made the 2-strand to the headphone seem flat, while the 4-strand is round!

 

What kind of sleeving is that, I like how loose and effortless it looks (and what wire is inside?)