For my interconnects and speaker cables, I followed the Jon Risch interconnect recipe for the Belden 89259 co-axial cable. Lots of information can be found for this popular DIY cable recipe on the Cable Asylum bulletin board.
I did NOT build these cables to save money. Rather, I built them because I wanted a quality interconnect made from quality materials without the frills of a name brand (high price, fancy outer jackets, exotic rattle snake oils and other mystic properties). These cables (audio plus two digital interconnects) displaced the cables I had recently purchased from BetterCables.com. The fact that I saved a few hundred dollars over the already reasonable prices at BetterCables by recabling my entire home theater system with these cables is just a fringe benefit. Even my non-audiophile wife walked into the room shortly after I got everything connected and noticed an immediate improvement.
Special thanks to Jon Risch, "Sean," "audioengr" and all of the others on the Cable Asylum bulletin board who answered the questions I posted.
Based on my research on the Cable Asylum, I used the following materials:
- Belden 89259 for interconnect and speaker cable
- Belden 1506A for digital interconnects (the free sample from Belden was enough to make these)
- Dayton Audio 091-1270 RCA plugs from Parts Express
- Kester "44" 63/37 .031" solder from Parts Express
- Adjustable rotary cable stripper from Parts Express
- Two rolls of Teflon tape from Home Depot (some rolls aren't labeled "Teflon" anywhere on the packaging so I made sure to get the rolls labeled "Teflon" just in case there was a difference).
- A set of "Helping Hands." Though these can be purchased at Radio Shack for ~$10, I found what appeared to be a better built version for half the price at my local electronics store, Fry's Electronics.
- I was an auto mechanic in a past life and still have my tools. Anyway, this
set of SnapOn picks was handy for working with the copper braid.
Helpful tips:
- Read through the technical notes posted on Jon Risch's web page
- Ask any questions on the Cable Asylum bulletin board
- Read this very informative post on the Cable Asylum by Sean. It explains how to use the Dayton RCA plugs with the Belden 89259 cable.
- Use a high quality soldering iron and read this soldering guide
- When ordering the cable, you can usually find it for $1 or less per foot if you tell the vendor that it's for an antenna rather than audio. Telling them the latter usually gets a price of $1.30 to $1.50 or more per foot. I purchased mine from Anixter. They stock it and sell it in custom lengths.
Here's what I did:
- Measure and cut the raw cable to the desired lengths.
- Tin the RCA plugs that you intend to use for the cables that you are about
to make and set them aside to cool naturally.
- Using a scrap piece of cable, experiment with the adjustable cutter to
determine how to adjust the blades. Make sure that you're not cutting any of
the seven inner wires or any of the braid but enough of the jacket so that
you don't have to fight it off. If you can manage to leave the cut foamed
Teflon insulator on the cable, do so as it will protect the seven inner
wires from becoming frayed or bent and broken (remove them just prior to
tinning). Now strip both ends of one cable.
Before stripping the next cable, follow the steps 3 through 6 and set each
cable aside when done. Here's what the adjustable rotary cutter looks like.
- Using a dentist's pick or something similar to the SnapOn picks I have pictured
above, divide the copper braid into two fairly equal bunches. Once you do
that, twist each bunch.
- Now you can tin the twisted copper braid and the center conductor.
- Repeat steps 3 through 5 until you have prepared enough cables for this
batch (like the four cables for your VCR or the five cables between your
preamp/processor and five channel amplifier). Let the batch of prepared
cables cool naturally for a few minutes. Carefully bend the tinned
copper shield into a "V" so that it can be more easily inserted
into the RCA plugs.
- Note: It is important NOT to skip this step. I had a report back from
someone that was disappointed with this cable recipe (he had built his
cables before I published this page). The one difference between his cables
and mine was that he used plastic or nylon for the stress relief instead of Teflon.
He later reported that after replacing his original stress relief with Teflon
plumber's tape that he noticed a marked improvement.
Since the cable is smaller than the inner portion of the RCA plug, you need to make a Teflon stress relief (note: the outer jacket of the Belden 89259 is Teflon). Measure and cut two pieces of the Teflon tape. You may need to experiment how much to use per cable end. In my case, one 32 inch strip per cable end was perfect. I measured the distance on my work bench and made a reference mark on the bench so I could measure subsequent strips. Use scissors rather than just pulling and breaking a length off. I found that if it was wound on the cable snugly enough, putting some heat shrink tubing over the Teflon tape was unnecessary. Be careful not to snag the tape on the tinned cable ends. It shreds easily. Once you wrap the tape around one end of the cable (I found this to be the most tedious part, by the way) carefully pop the RCA plug over the cable end. The dentist's picks work well for guiding the tinned leads into the RCA plug correctly.
If you want to get really picky (as I did for the first few cables), you can measure the outer thickness of the Teflon strain relief and compare it against the inner part of the RCA plug. The Teflon should be slightly larger and fluffier than the the RCA plug.
- Now solder up the RCA plugs. and allow them to cool naturally before
installing. Check each cable with an ohm meter for shorts. There should be
infinite resistance between the inner signal pin and the outer portion of
the connector. Once cooled, the resistance I measured between the signal
pins was around .4 ohms and .3 ohms between the outer portion of the
connectors. Your mileage may vary.
- Once the cables have cooled plug them in and enjoy. Keep in mind that
there are some people who argue that cables need to break in.
This page was last updated on 10/24/04
