Homebrew leads

Mylo

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I have just completed building and replacing all my phono leads with nice shiny homemade ones. The cable is Pursonic high definition 5050A with nice heavy weight gold plugs. A 1m lead worked out at less than £5. The sound is as good if not better than my purchased leads.:smashin:
 

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The soldering was very easy, I use a temperature controlled iron set at 400 C with a long conical bit and RS solder. The dielectric on this particular cable does not melt as easily as normal cheap co-ax which makes soldering the screen far easier. The cable is easily stripped using a sharp craft knife. The secret is to 'dry assemble' the cable and hold it in the plug using the cable grip.;)
 
Looks good Mylo, what connectors did you end up using?

Regards
John
 
cheers Mylo, got to admit I'm a tart as well, thats why I asked!!!
 
Those plugs look great :smashin:

Looking to make a good quality sub lead, around 6m in length.

Can anyone recommend a supplier of good cable at a reasonable price please?

Thanks
 
Hi Mylo (And everyone else)

I am about to make my first phono lead. I have just purchased some 2 core van damme mic cable, some phono plugs, a soldering iron and some other bits. The thing is, I do not have a clue on what to do. I understand that the phono plug has two parts, the centre pin and the the outer part. I 'think' that the centre pin carried the signal whilst the outer part is the ground, is this correct? Is so, where should I make the connection, and where should I solder?

The lead will have a stereo headphone jack at one end, and the 2 phono's at the other. Am I right in assuming that the ground point on the headphone jack will be common for both the right and left audio channel?


Finally, the cable has a metal braid on it, should I ground this at any end of the cable?

Your help is much appreciated.

Cheers

Rob
 
Hi Rob. Hope this helps. Piccys follow after.

1: Slide plug outer body over cable including spring if present.
2: Strip outer insulation from cable about 15mm down.
Run a sharp craft knife round while pushing gently with thumb.
Careful not to cut into the screen.
3: Unweave the cable screen carefully until you can twist it together level with the insulation.
4: If foil is present cut flush to insulation.
5: Cut twisted screen to about 5-8mm long
6: Twist tightly and tin using a hot soldering iron & solder.
7: Using craft knife strip insulation off inner cable and twist & tin bare wires
8: Fold soldered screen against inner insulation.
9: Open cable clamp on plug
10: Slide cable through clamp and push inner wire into centre of plug.
11: Turn cable so twisted screen touching the clamp section.
12: Solder inner wire into plug:
13: Solder screen onto cable clamp.
14: Close cable clamp round cable with pliers or crimp tool.
15: Ensure no screen wire strands are touching inner wire.
16: Slide outer body and screen onto plug and screw together.

Note: use only as much heat as needed to flow solder, prolonged heat will melt inner and outer insulation and ruin your lead.
 
2:
 

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Originally posted by Pulsar

The lead will have a stereo headphone jack at one end, and the 2 phono's at the other. Am I right in assuming that the ground point on the headphone jack will be common for both the right and left audio channel?


Yes ground is common.

Good luck.:)
 
I am tempted to do some DIY as well, where did you get your cable from?
Thanks
Flibb

********************EDIT****************************
Just found it on that link.

Puresonic Audio Lead - 10m
Order Code: AV0161722 Unit Cost: £17.93
 
Just found this thread and have got to mention the interconnects I made a few years ago.

I spent a while auditioning various "hi-fi" leads up to around £200 per set and became hooked on the sound of solid-core interconnects (IMHO cleaner, rounder, smoother and more "together" than any of the multi-strand ones I tried). The only problem was the cost :(

So I decided to experiment with a bit of DIY. After a few false starts I ended up with the following:-

0.5m leads made from the 2 cores of a piece of 2.5mm "twin & earth" ring-main cable @ about 60p/metre from B&Q. Shielded with the copper braid from a piece of coax (aerial cable) attached at the amplifier end only. Plugs very similar to those used by Mylo above. Covered in electricians insulating tape (only to stopp the copper braid tarnishing).

Total cost: < £10
Comparative performance: Better than anything I had auditioned
:smashin:
 
i might give it a go just to see if they work
cheers
f
 
Go for it. :clap:

If nothing else, you will get a feeling of satisfaction when you see all your hard work completed. The back of my amp looks superb, shame no one can see it.:blush: ;)
 
Flibb,
As a novice, did you have any difficulty with the soldering?
Do you have any tips or links to get started?

Mylo,
Where did you get your Puresonic cable from?
And which plugs did you use?

I am trying to decide whether or not to take the plunge and give it a go!:lesson:
 
Thanks for all your replies! It is now a case of too much information.
Choosing plugs is easy enough but the cable choice is confusing. Everyone uses something very different (I have pictures of them all but can't upload them)

Some have used Coaxial cable (e.g. Maplin.co.uk XS61R)

others have used Microphone cable (e.g. Starquest professional microphone)

others have used 50:50 paired shielded Audio cable

Others have used IBM Type 6 Token Ring cable (Piano 6 (http://www.tnt-audio.com/clinica/piano6_1_e.html)

3 questions arise!

1. Without wishing to start an arguement, which is best for my purposes (3 pairs for analogue connection from DVD player (Pioneer 565) to AV amplifier (Yamaha A5) for DVD-A/SACD)

2. If they all sound good, which is easiest to work with, soldering wise.

3. Is soldering difficult? I was warned off it by Thorsten of tnt-audio.com and I respect his caution!
 
Difficult one this.
I use a tradional cable design and cable specifically made for audio transmission. I found the cable easy to work with.
Soldering is not hard if you have the correct equipment. In my experience it's the cables that make construction harder.

Over to the others now.

Mylo:p
 
I hadn't done any soldering since I was at school, until I got into this AV/DIY lark. You can always practice using some offcuts, and I found that after a couple of connections, I was good enough to do a reasonable job (though I wouldn't pretend to be a pro).

As i've mentioned before, I found Van Damme Instrument a bit fiddly, but other than that, there hasn't been much difference in terms of ease of soldering. FWIW, Shark connectors (look same as mylo's link) are easier to solder than the own brand ones I got from VDC Trading.

I'm sure you'd be happy with any of the cables mentioned, so just go for it :smashin:

Regards
 
Does anyone have any cable left over?
I only need about 0.75m and the minimum order is for 5m which is all going to be wasted.
Cash waiting :)
 

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