custom interconnects?

[albireo13]

I have a stack of gear .. ERC-1, USP-1, and UPA-2 ...... on my stand have been using standard 1m RCA interconnect cables. The cable clutter is driving me nuts !
I only need short runs and can only find 0.5m cables as the shortest.
What have other folks done?
I am assuming I will need custom cables, or build my own.

Are their other options?

Thx,
Rob

[Animo]

If you are running balanced connections, I would recommend Mogami Cable and Neutrek connectors. You can make them any length you desire. I was able to make 7 one meter pairs for about $11 per cable.


If you want to make RCA cables, What I did was to take 3 single strand insulated copper wires, and braid them similar to Kimber PBJs. I used gold RCA plugs and wired one side open. In other words, connect all 3 wires on one plug, ..pos, neg, and ground.... but on the other connector, only connect pos & neg and trim the ground wire so it make no connection at all. This way you have a directional cable with the open side connected to your source. For example.... ERC open to preamp closed.....Preamp open to amplifier closed. In essence each source is connected with the open plug and the next component gets the grounded plug. Below is one of my earlier versions. You will notice I put a black mark for the open end. Later on, I also included black and red shrink tubing under the relief spring to differentiate left from right. At the time I made about a dozen cables ranging from 6 feet to 12 feet, at an average cost of about $8 apiece.

[albireo13]

Animo, thanks.
Why did you use the 3-wire approach? Is this better than the standard coaxial, shielded RAC cable approach?
Also, is there an advantage to leaving one end open on the Gnd wire?

Rob

[albireo13]

Looks like I'll be using strictly RCA cabling. My ERC-1 has balanced outputs but the USP-1 pre doesn't accept balanced inputs. Also, the UPA-2 pwr amp does not support balanced inputs.

Rob

[Animo]

Jun 8, 2010 14:23:06 GMT -5 albireo13 said:

Animo, thanks.
Why did you use the 3-wire approach? Is this better than the standard coaxial, shielded RAC cable approach?
Also, is there an advantage to leaving one end open on the Gnd wire?

Rob

I used 3 wires because you really can't braid 2 wires. Since the RCA only has 2 points of contact, the ground and negative cable are connected to the same place on one end, and the ground trimmed and not connected on the other. The braiding helps to reduce skin effect. I got the design from the "Cable Cookbook".
Whether it is better than a shielded coaxial is hard to say. basically what you want is a good conductor that has low resistance and imparts no audible characteristics of it's own on the sound...(neutral).

[jlafrenz]

How long of cables do you need? Blue Jeans Cable will make cables for you by the foot. If you need something specific, you might want to give them a call and see if they can do smaller increments.

[SticknStones]

Give DoingOk a ring as he makes his analog interconnects too!