bill@vrdxhq.verdix.com (William Spencer) (08/17/90)
I'm trying a homemade interconnect that sounds very good. I used gold plated low cost plugs and 9" of Audioquest F-14 speaker wire. The result is an unshielded narrow twin-lead construction with solid OFHC conductors. Other wires could be used. The F-14 is four conductors total. I split it and only used two (probably better as well as easier). F-14 goes for $.79 a foot. Total cost was $5. Suprisingly, there's no hum problem with this short a length. Unplugged from the CD there's a very slight hum but connected there's no hum even at maximum gain. They should not pass near any other wiring and have space between them. Whether the resulting sound quality is results from the construction or the short length I don't know. Comparisons: Sound differences between cables are small but not negligible. I was using AQ Turqoise interconnects when a friend brought over his silver solid core cables (the shield is stranded; I don't know the brand). Hooked 'em up and NO difference. Well, at first listen. After a few swaps the difference was noticable. The silvercores rolled off the highs just a little. The AQ's had a hollow sound and possibly a bit of HF peaking. The silver cores are probably rather capacitive. The AQ's have a four conductor construction which seems suspect to me. Both were 1m lengths. The F-14 cables have stronger smoother highs than either. No hollowness. Incidently, they are somewhat similar to the internal amp wiring which probably helps. My tube electronics are relatively insensitive to RF I expect since a low-pass filter results at the input. I don't see how you can simplify the input path more than these simple cables. Let me know what you think. bill S. bill@verdix.com