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<!-- #thumb --> <p>Fatter wire sounds fuller, skinnier wire sounds thin, shielded wire sounds cleaner but veiled, stranded wire sounds one way and solid core thicker wire sounds yet another. *These findings were very suspicious to me because they matched too closely to what I might expect – fat wire sounds fatter – really? *That sounds like a crock of you know what, but the evidence was just overwhelming. *To make it even more confusing we were talking about power cables, not audio cables. *I knew the importance of power, of course, but the cabling?</p>
<p>I ran multiple double blind tests as best I could but kept coming up with the same results. *So, instead of fighting it, I figured I’d whip up my own formula cable to see what I could make happen.</p>
<p>I knew I wanted to use solid core wire and I also knew I wanted to use multiple strands of it so it would be possible to bend the power cord. *I had also figured out that two heavy a gauge of single core wire seemed to sound too thick and 16 gauge solid core was best. *The easiest way for me to build this prototype was to buy spools of insulated 16 gauge copper wire at my local Home Depot and that’s what I did.</p>
<p>My first thought was to braid the wires together as my friend Ray Kimber was fond of doing in his cables. *This would reduce the inductance of the cable, which may or may not have been a good idea. *I had previously tried one manufacturer’s attempt at a high-end power cable that had a slug of ferrite on one end and it sounded dreadful – constipated would be a good description of the sound – so I was leery of too much inductance. *But in the end I went for parallel bundles for two reasons: the inductance just made sense (it rolls off high frequencies) and I couldn’t figure out how to braid the wire. *I seem to remember braiding something in school but every attempt at it turned into a mess.</p>
<p>I also considered magnet wire as the conductors because I was suspicious that the dielectric (insulation) might have something to do with the sound, but in the end shied away from it because I was terrified the enamel on the wire would get punctured and my cable would light on fire. *For those that don’t know, magnet wire is solid core copper with a coating of varnish or enamel over it to form a very thin insulation. *It’s about as thin as insulation can get and it is what’s used in transformers, speaker coils etc. *My fears were unfounded as this is used in high voltage applications a lot, but it just seemed safer to go with the rubber insulation from the Home Depot wire.</p>
<p>My first attempt at the power cable used three cores of insulated 16 gauge, twisted together for each conductor. *I used an electric drill to twist the three conductors together, a trick I learned years ago in our production facilities. *I then bundled all three conductors together and tied them up with nylon cord to keep everything together. *I attached a couple of off-the-shelf connectors on each end and had my first cable.</p>
<p>The next step was to compare it to the stock power cable which is exactly what I did.</p>
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[Source: http://www.pstracks.com/pauls-posts/homemade-cables/11272/]
<p>I ran multiple double blind tests as best I could but kept coming up with the same results. *So, instead of fighting it, I figured I’d whip up my own formula cable to see what I could make happen.</p>
<p>I knew I wanted to use solid core wire and I also knew I wanted to use multiple strands of it so it would be possible to bend the power cord. *I had also figured out that two heavy a gauge of single core wire seemed to sound too thick and 16 gauge solid core was best. *The easiest way for me to build this prototype was to buy spools of insulated 16 gauge copper wire at my local Home Depot and that’s what I did.</p>
<p>My first thought was to braid the wires together as my friend Ray Kimber was fond of doing in his cables. *This would reduce the inductance of the cable, which may or may not have been a good idea. *I had previously tried one manufacturer’s attempt at a high-end power cable that had a slug of ferrite on one end and it sounded dreadful – constipated would be a good description of the sound – so I was leery of too much inductance. *But in the end I went for parallel bundles for two reasons: the inductance just made sense (it rolls off high frequencies) and I couldn’t figure out how to braid the wire. *I seem to remember braiding something in school but every attempt at it turned into a mess.</p>
<p>I also considered magnet wire as the conductors because I was suspicious that the dielectric (insulation) might have something to do with the sound, but in the end shied away from it because I was terrified the enamel on the wire would get punctured and my cable would light on fire. *For those that don’t know, magnet wire is solid core copper with a coating of varnish or enamel over it to form a very thin insulation. *It’s about as thin as insulation can get and it is what’s used in transformers, speaker coils etc. *My fears were unfounded as this is used in high voltage applications a lot, but it just seemed safer to go with the rubber insulation from the Home Depot wire.</p>
<p>My first attempt at the power cable used three cores of insulated 16 gauge, twisted together for each conductor. *I used an electric drill to twist the three conductors together, a trick I learned years ago in our production facilities. *I then bundled all three conductors together and tied them up with nylon cord to keep everything together. *I attached a couple of off-the-shelf connectors on each end and had my first cable.</p>
<p>The next step was to compare it to the stock power cable which is exactly what I did.</p>
<center><a href="http://www.pstracks.com/pauls-posts/homemade-cables/11272/emailpopup/" onclick="email_popup(this.href); return false;" title="Forward to a friend and help us engage more readers" rel="nofollow"><img class="WP-EmailIcon" src="http://www.pstracks.com/wp-content/plugins/wp-email/images/email.gif" alt="email Homemade cables" title="Homemade cables" /></a>*<a href="http://www.pstracks.com/pauls-posts/homemade-cables/11272/emailpopup/" onclick="email_popup(this.href); return false;" title="Forward to a friend and help us engage more readers" rel="nofollow">Forward to a friend and help us engage more readers</a></center><br /><!-- // MAILCHIMP SUBSCRIBE CODE --><center><a href="http://eepurl.com/eSzBY">Get new and fresh stories like this each morning by joining the folks reading Paul's Posts. Click here </a></center>
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[Source: http://www.pstracks.com/pauls-posts/homemade-cables/11272/]