:)
Well, it seems that the audio interconnects that I made need to be replaced. Turns out I was using standard, good-for-RF RG6. This has a copper-plated steel core with a 60% aluminum shield. Not bad, but it explains the extremely hard time I was having with soldering to the braid. Whoops.
Anyway, I think tomorrow I’m going to get a hold of Graybar and see if I can get 100′ of Belden 9259. It’s an all-copper coax, with a stranded core. Should be quite a bit easier to work with… I’ll just have to get some more connectors and resolder things. Shouldn’t be a big deal. :) The subwoofer does function right now, but I’m concerned about using a cold solder to hold the ground together. It just doesn’t seem like the best idea, to me.
So, hopefully this will work out for the best. I’m wondering if I should get more than 50′, in case I want to make more custom interconnects in the future… I’m just not really sure right now. I’m thinking that it might be nice to make a run from my test 2003 machine to my home theater stuff, that way I could listen to streaming audio in the basement…
Hmm…
Would anyone be interested in some coax for making custom, high quality audio interconnects / subwoofer cables / whatever? For about $0.30/ft + connectors and with a soldering iron you can make your own high-quality interconnects!
Don’t get confused on the specs of a cable. What’s good for RF is not neccessarily good for music. And in most cases is not. When building audio interconnects there is nothing like building it and trying it or borrowing knowledge from those who have done the experamenting. http://www.audioasylum.com is a great resource. Listen to what Jon Risch has to say. I believe he is a wire/cable engineer by trade.
For subwoofers I would suggest high quality PURE COPPER as copper handles the low freqs best. Silver is best for clarity and mid to high end.
Also I would really look into the cable you are looking at using. The Belden 9259 is a PVC jacket which is normally NOT considered audiophile quality. When working with audio you really want Teflon. When building audio cables you are primarilly concerned with capacitance. The lower the better. http://db.audioasylum.com/cgi/m.pl?forum=cables&n=79598&highlight=capacitance+per+foot&r=&session=
I have capacitance meters if you would like to test your cables.
You also want to use silver solder and gold plated RCA connectors. I prefer the locking type. Radio Shack has some decent solver solder but NOT connectors. I get a lot of my parts at http://www.partsexpress.com