I'm venturing into cable making and I've found sources for everything I need, except good quality copper wire. What should I look for?

Thanks in advance!

.

What makes what you've found so far not good quality wire?

Jena Labs Cryo! (perfect balanced of musicality and resolution)

Audience Auric Wire! (warm)

Jupiter Pure Unbleached Cotton Insulated Solid Core Silver Wire! (airy and detailed with good bass)

These are a few of my faaaaaavourite things....

What makes what you've found so far not good quality wire?

I think it's more that I don't know what to look for, versus where to look.

Audience Auric Wire! (warm)

hYdrociTy++

For starters you might want to stick with ebay spc/teflon wire in like 26 gauge. Practice braiding and stuff like that. Then move on to cable assemblies like mogami and canare. Lastly, after working with the assembled bulk cable already, you will have an idea of how shielding and jackets are done.

Unless you are doing this for looks, you might want to read up on shielding and basic cable geometry.

Places to shop:

ebay: user name= navships "John's Teflon Wire store or something" ~ 6 bucks for 50' or whatever in many gauges and colors

markertek: has all the common pro cable and connector brands at good prices.

takefive(canada but ships quickly to us, no hassle at all)- Most of their stuff have the option of being cryo treated. They have a nice mix of assembled name brand cables like belden and stuff, while also offering boutique wire and connectors and a bunch of other stuff. Nice selection of parts to make power cables.

Redco: they have an extensive selection of pro audio bulk cable, wire, connectors etc. Nothing fancy or boutique, only high quality pro stuff. This is the real deal. They ship damn fast.

Homgrownaudio: They have pre braided stuff, typical audiophile fare- solid silver wires, teflon tubes, boutique connectors. The cotton insulated copper or silver wire is a favorite of mine because they have the best prices around for them.

partsconnexion: (canada) They are the choice for all things boutique. They have almost all brands of audiophile brand wire be it speaker or hookup or power. Their prices are alright, but their ordering process is stupefyingly slow.

michaelpercy Their catalog is on a giant pdf file. I never ordered from them, but they seem to have a nice inventory of audiophile cable parts. Very similar to partsconnexion.

Holy Crap, Thanks!

Where are some good places to learn about sheilding and cable geometry?

Does anyone know of a place where I can learn to make an iPod LOD cable? Actually, I've found a place that information on each of the pins and what they do, I'm just wondering how to solder to the pin itself. It doesn't seem to have a hole to loop a wire through...do I just tack it to the pin and surround it with hot glue so they don't touch?

yes that's exactly what you do for a dock. Did you ever bother looking at headfi's diy forum? on the top there is actually a giant sticky thread with pics on how to make a few basic interconnects. Not the most organized thing ever nor easy to understand but hey it could be worse.

I have no idea how much you already know about cables, so I wouldn't know where to point you for literature.

+ goes to + and - goes to - ...that is about the gist of it.

You forgot the hardest concept of all: Remembering to slide all the components onto the cable before soldering both ends

You forgot the hardest concept of all: Remembering to slide all the components onto the cable before soldering both ends

The cable would still work fine regardless...

Question on a different note:

When I see someone with an interconnect with 4 wires, 2 copper and 2 silver...doesn't that create an odd man out situation since you only have 1 Ground, 1 Right, and 1 Left? Which one gets the two cables?

Usually you use 1R/1L/2GND. Some people like to connect the shielding (if it's there) to one end of the ground as well. I didn't pay too much attention in the electricity part of physics so I can't tell you anything about it, but I seem to recall reading that it makes the shielding actually shield, as opposed to just sitting there.

Well, for a balanced cable you could have one silver and one copper each for + and -.

you could make one side out of string cheese and the other side out of spaghetti. that should sound nice and organic.

That'll start to smell bad quickly, though, unless, of course, you cryo them first.

Well, for a balanced cable you could have one silver and one copper each for + and -.

Why would you do that? Last I heard, electricity flows both ways -- I realize that ground is different from an active signal, but it still strikes me as putting it through copper part of the way, and silver the rest of the way -- is that necessarily wise, if one has access to silver both ways?

Why would you do that? Last I heard, electricity flows both ways -- I realize that ground is different from an active signal, but it still strikes me as putting it through copper part of the way, and silver the rest of the way -- is that necessarily wise, if one has access to silver both ways?

Huh?

Wow, I just realized that I didn't even read the copper/silver part properly.