[conman]

Hi

I just construct myself a 1 m. long interconnect (stereo)from 1 m. of CAT5 cable.

The construction is adapted from TNT.

Here are what i did

1 single cat5, both sides are peeled about 10 cm. Most of the cable is still in the PVC jacket.

I use 2 colors (twisted, HOT) and 2 white (ground) for each phono agaist 1 color and 1 white from TNT

I terminated with 4x 24k gold plated nakabichi phonos
Total cost about 7 pounds (90% on the plug)

In theory (which i am aware of), this construction should reject any RFI from the cable and delivery less loss of the signal. 2 strand of copper should ensure that all the signal are full delivered.

I was using QED Qnex1. ( i dont have any other cable to
However, I can not tell any different....

Any comments on the theory, construction or if you want to try the cable please let me know.
If this is electrically DANGEROUS please let me know ASAP.

I will post some pictures later.

[conman]

So far so good... no smoke burning... and sound seems natural as it is... from Qnex1

[ben.bayliss]

I'm prepared to be proven wrong, but but with that CAT5 you won't have any screening, so even though the pairs are twisted, they're still very susceptible to RF/EMI interference. RCAs don't provide for electronically balanced transmission, so it's still a long unbalanced line.

Not entirely convinced by the TNT link either... Looks like a lot of effort to end up with a cable with not much copper...

Sorry to be all doom and gloom! I reckon the TNT guy would be better off fitting RCA plugs to his (reasonable - tho still not much shielding on that cheapo coax) coax cable.

[conman]

Originally Posted by ben.bayliss

I'm prepared to be proven wrong, but but with that CAT5 you won't have any screening, so even though the pairs are twisted, they're still very susceptible to RF/EMI interference. RCAs don't provide for electronically balanced transmission, so it's still a long unbalanced line.

Not entirely convinced by the TNT link either... Looks like a lot of effort to end up with a cable with not much copper...

Sorry to be all doom and gloom! I reckon the TNT guy would be better off fitting RCA plugs to his (reasonable - tho still not much shielding on that cheapo coax) coax cable.

Copper... i think the cross section is big enough, 0.4 mm2

Screening....
Even though, the twisted wire should reject most of the RFI, however,
you are quite right, i might need a copper braid to absord EMI and some aluminum foil.

FYI, I have seen many kimber cable which only have teflon insulation.

Anything else

[ben.bayliss]

I guess I just don't see the point... You can buy good quality signal cable for well under £1/m (if you buy a reel - probably not much more than 30p/m) which'll have more copper than that - plus a reasonable screen AND probably a second core for potential balanced connections to boot.

Please educate me as to why this is a good idea?

[conman]

Originally Posted by ben.bayliss

I guess I just don't see the point... You can buy good quality signal cable for well under £1/m (if you buy a reel - probably not much more than 30p/m) which'll have more copper than that - plus a reasonable screen AND probably a second core for potential balanced connections to boot.

Please educate me as to why this is a good idea?

Before, i make my comment, i would like to say i could be wrong... I only have little electrical engineering knowledge ( few classes during undergraduate).

Firstly, it is not all about copper size , the cross section area of wire determine the flow rate of current unit in Amp. Adequate cross section of copper will allow enough current. However, too big area will lead to other problem, the load will be much higher, the current flow rate will be slower, the capacitance, impedance will be higher as well. The wire will lose its optimum transferring ability.

Secondly, the price, the plug i paid might be slightly overkill for my design this bring the price up to be unbalance.

Thirdly, good quality budget signal cable (retail/non)will not have the some design. These design might proof to be useful for some system which i think may be important to my current system.

Lastly, with my limited knowledge my design is quite limited and would like other forum member to share and perhaps help me improve this.

Well... i could be totally wrong, at least someone else wont have to repeat this over again... however, so far i am not quite convince i am wrong here.