DIY Cable

simonph

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Can someone put together a shopping list from Maplin for me? I need an interconnect for my sub plus an interconnect between the DVD player and amp (digi coax i think!). What are peep's preferences as far as interconnects go? I think my DVD player has both optical and digi coax.. which one is better?
Thanks very much!!
 
for the cables you want, you would be much better buying prefab cables from Mark Grant or Groundy. Certainly with the digital coax, it will cost you way too much to get it right to make it worthwhile. With this sort of cable it needs to be 75 ohm and you just wont get anywhere near what either of the 2 makers above can do.

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am needing just a metre or so for the dvd player and probably about six for the sub..
 
eviljohn2 said:
Although they will be more expensive and less fun.

If you do still want to have a go yourself, how much would you be planning to spend and what sort of lengths are required?
The prefabs would be cheaper! For a sub cable you need half decent cable (can you actually get only 6m?) and standard RCA's. You really should use decent RCA's, something like the neutrik ones at £10 a pair. You then need a soldering iron and silver solder which is going to come im sure to £20. So you are talking £30 for the sub cable at least. Then the digital coax.... you need 75 ohm cable which is not necessarily dead easy to get and you need something close to 75ohm in a connector. To my knowledge, maplin dont actually have something that will even be close.

I make my own analogue cables but feel that a digital is not worth making yourself when you can get a 1m true 75ohm from either Mark or Groundy for little more than £20.

You could PM either of those members or Mark has his section in the powerbuys.

all the best

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Fair points buns, not sure about the digital connection as I've not tried enough different ones to notice any massive difference. PGD481 for a tenner does me fine.

If simonph already has a soldering iron and silver solder it's not a problem (or if he plans to make more interconnects in the future). I made my sub cable from this:
http://www.maplin.co.uk/Products/Module.asp?CartID=031112170529256&ModuleNo=9512&MR=N
and some decent locking phono plugs from CPC, although I have some Shark ones from Maplin that are pretty good too.

Either way, this isn't the place to argue about little things like that! If you're keen to make your own cables it's fun and satisfying although you may not have the perfectly designed supercables that are available elsewhere. :smashin:

I think the main cost is getting the soldering equipment in the first place.

Edit: I used these connectors and also put a ferrite clamp on for good measure. http://custom1.farnell.com/cpc/prod...+Video+and+RF+-+Phono+(RCA)&product_id=276796
 
Well what I use is IBM networking cable type 6...... it consists of 3 double shielded twisted pairs. If simon is keen to try some different cables, I have a load of off cuts of this cable, some of which might suit..... let me know if so and i can send you some

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I've heard of that but not come across any myself. Most of the usual suppliers over here don't seem to stock it unless you're in the industry. Without being presumptuous, could I have some offcuts please?

simonph, it's up to you now - DIY can be worthwhile and is certainly fun but if you don't plan on doing much it's quite expensive. :)
 
thanks for all your help and cheers for the offer of cable.. will go away and have a think!
 
eviljohn2 said:
I've heard of that but not come across any myself. Most of the usual suppliers over here don't seem to stock it unless you're in the industry. Without being presumptuous, could I have some offcuts please?

simonph, it's up to you now - DIY can be worthwhile and is certainly fun but if you don't plan on doing much it's quite expensive. :)
you certainly may :) I will have a look and see what exactly I have..... I have a great big bundle of cables from my early days that either have no termination or one of my learning efforts that I got shot of. Drop me a Pm and let me know what sort of length you are looking and I'll see what I can do

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If your planning on making up your own cables there's some good info and links in the DIY section of the forums... worth a look.

Regards,
Iain.
 
thanks buns!
right.. i probably need a five metre single phono for my sub and then just a one metre digi coax for dvd player.. much appreciated! :thumbsup:
been looking on tvcables.co.uk, are there cables any good? seems like £6 is too cheap for a 10m sub cable??
 
£6 does sound too cheap. Try making your own, thats what I did, R59 double screened coax from maplins and screened RCA plugs, take your time and you'll end up with a product better than almost anything else you can buy over the counter, plus you'll have the satisfaction in knowing you made it.. :thumbsup:
 
simonph said:
thanks buns!
right.. i probably need a five metre single phono for my sub and then just a one metre digi coax for dvd player.. much appreciated! :thumbsup:
been looking on tvcables.co.uk, are there cables any good? seems like £6 is too cheap for a 10m sub cable??

shouldnt be a problem for the sub cable but you cant make the coax with this..... it isnt a coax cable! A link for what got me into using this is http://www.tnt-audio.com/clinica/piano6_1_e.html (for some reason I cant find the way to make the link appear simply as a word of my choice).

drop me a pm

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