I hope this is within forum rules. Read through them and didn’t find anything that said otherwise.
A rather new found interest for me is trying to build a good interconnect for my sources. Since I have fell in love with some of the Neotech offerings I am thinking of using them. Now the problem is choosing din-plugs. I have searched the internet and found a few but not many. The silver plated Deltron looks quite promising and the Rhodium plated Viborg even more so. But they are 10 times the cost. For the rca type or xlr there are an endelss amount at various price points.
Has any of you fine folks built interconnects and if so have you tried different din plugs and if so which ones did you prefer?
I know Naim is using prehkeytech for their Lavender, snaics and din to xlr but I wonder if those plugs can’t be bettered. Especially when Naim themselves use a different plug on the better Hiline and Superlumina. I am aiming for that type of quality since I find the Lavender way below the Neotech cables even with rca.
By the way does anyone know what kind of plating Naim chose for the air plugs on the Hiline and Superlumina. It’s very hard to find information about that on the internet. It seems the plating on the Prehkeytech is tin or nickel.
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No breach of forum rules on DIY interconnects. It’s the Burndies and SNAICs that xarry DC power that cannot be discussed.
Building your own interconnect is mostly down to skill in soldering. I’ve built my own before using Mogami cable and plugs. Cost-wise peanuts but then so are expensive interconnects often. Once you consider the time cost for your effort to make them, and then assume a sizeable markup to the dealer and the dealer’s markup to the customer, it is easy to see how $30 woeth of cable and plugs translates to a $500 interconnect.
While there are really good things on the market that don’t cost a fortune, I find it takes a lot to convince me to stray away from Mogami stock. It’s insanely good cost performance.
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Nice. So which din plugs do you use and have you compared them to others?
You write Mogami plugs. They make din?
I just saw designacable uses switchcraft din that are tin plated.
I won’t solder myself. I have a friend that does soldering electronics for a living and also builds hi-fi electronics so it’ll be exceptionally well soldered.
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Hi, yes I build interconnects and SPDIF leads. A source I find useful is the Hifi Collective, you can buy specialist and exotic cables and plugs at cost plus relatively modest resale margin, so you can build cables massively cheaper than many consumer boutique products but use largely the same or similar materials, albeit without fancy packaging and bling appearance.
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I tried to build one myself with expensive parts, but a quick comparison against a Naim lavender RCA to DIN cable set me straight
The Naim cable was so much better, I just gave up on the idea.
I now use Naim Superlumina and vertere cables, yes expensive, but performance wise it is what I prefer.
The last ones I made were RCA and I used Mogami for that too. One thing to bear in mind is whether you make the cable mechanically directional or not. This means only terminating the shield to ground at one end. I always do this and it is common in many (but not all) off the shelf interconnects. The concensus is to do this only at the amp end but IIRC, Naim do this at the source end (you can always open a Lavender interconnect to see).
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Thank you. Yes I have opened the Lavneder and 4-pin to xlr. Interesting that the din-xlr are made up of a standard power cord and it still works very well in very expensive systems.
We’ve already built a digital interconnect with Neotech cable. Performance is very good. I’m now aiming for an interconnect made up of Neotech 1220 both for the source to pre and Supercap to nap 250dr. Which din plugs have you used when building interconnects?
The Hiline I opened was nothing fancy at all (DIN). The exterior looks nice but the interior is just basic flimsy pins, cheap plastics and standard looking cable. With that said it works very well 
I would personally aim for same plating as their normal DIN connectors to match the plating/metals which I assume is tin plated if that is what is standard amongst DIN connectors.
Just found this on Hiline. Haven’t read this before. I guess the “semi shield” come from the resistor in the design.
The cable section of the Hi-Line also benefited from a complete re-think. It had to be low capacitance, low resistance and flexible. It had to work superbly in DIN to DIN connections but it also had to perform when used in other configurations. The cable, exclusive to Naim, is manufactured from twisted pairs of 80 Litz conductors surrounded by PTFE, Kapton and PTFE tape all then enclosed within a semi conductive shield to reduce static charges. This is then wrapped by two spiral wound copper shields and lapped PTFE tape. Two of these assemblies side by side are then wrapped in layers of PTFE tape and finally a rubber outer covering. This gives a two-channel cable where the signal and RF grounds are held in a static position relative to each other negating any difference in field between them.
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Yes it seems to be the case. However Naim is using silver plating on their Superlumina speaker cables and that plating seems to work just fine even though it’s allegedly nickel plating in the banana outlets of the amplifiers. Hence I wonder what the plating is on the airplugs they use? Maybe @Richard.Dane can advice?
I’ve found plugs make a big difference on the outcome when comparing on speaker cable
I’m guessing, again The DIN connectors are designed to cut a new trace in the pin each time you mount it. To use Silver plating on such a connector design should mean problems since silver is a soft metall.
Ok. Is it softer than tin?
Just googled it. Seems silver is 5 x harder than tin
Yes connectors do indeed make a huge impact. My speaker cables use Klei which the designer Joakim at Oephi found out to be the best. Nothing fancy but very good.
I’ve just mounted a Furutech Rhodium connector on my Ultimate C19 end. Huge difference from the same in gold. I do prefer the Rhodium one by a lot.
Why not make different connectors and cables and evaluate? I’m sure you can get the cost of parts back selling it on later
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Is it on the cable from wall to 156? Is it then batter than Puritans own c19?
Felt that was a dumb question. Where else would you put it?
Yes with SPDIF cables it’s the plugs and attaching the cable to the plug that is crucial. Standard engineering RG 6, 11, 59, 179 cables are fine, but the different numbers represent different constructions with differing capacitance (that is nominally specified by the standard) at 75 ohm CI, so you can experiment to suit your connecting devices to see what ‘sounds’ best.
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AFAIK the pins on the DIN plugs and sockets are silver plated (hence why they can tarnish black), but best check with Naim to be sure.
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From wall to 156. Wall is still original and the end going into 156 is Furutech Rhodium. It was brand new so will let it bed in for 1-200h before switching back to the original Ultimate 
But sounds very promising indeed.
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That would be interesting. However my friend is the busy kind and soldering din plugs is a pita, or so I’ve heard. It might even be more difficult with the flat silver leads made up of massive UP-OCC silver of the 1220 compared to a more “normal wire such as the one in the Lavender.
I’ll start with one cable and then we’ll see.
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Yes - I’d certainly pay top dollar for a reject amateur assemblage of random wires and plugs.
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