Qutest, Hugo TT2, Mscaler

I made my own RCA and XLR to speaker cables, which was my first attempt at making my own cables. I bought a decent soldering gun, and some electrical tape. The cables worked, but looked hideous really, so that is where my cable making ended. I was going to attempt making BNC cables with the solid core ferrites, but Nick contacted me with an offer I couldn’t refuse on a pair of his Wave Storm cables.
I would not say it is hard to do, but would take a lot of trial and error before you get the level of quality that you get when you purchase them. It could become a hobby I guess, if you have the time and patience, but in the back of your mind, you would always be wondering if they are a compromise.


Here is a photo of my attempt.

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That last sentence sums it up for me. The equipment is too expensive and life is too short for me yo be making my in cables. Its only since I bought the ultima that I discovered the difference between balanced and unbalanced cables!

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Yeah… I love my balanced cables. I’ll probably fiddle around practicing soldering etc but not for the purpose of needing to make cables… just for the hell of it really :grinning:

Hi Toon,

Yes. I have played with a fair few DC cables. I use Quadstar DC cables off the end of PoE adapters with a network cable between.

M

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Well it appears my Dueland cables are evolving as they are used… reading around this cable needs quite a run in, perhaps due to its unusual dielectric.
A very deep sub bass has come from somewhere, (and I’m only using ATC SCM19s!) and the upper mids have dropped back… I suspect it will evolve yet.
Right now the Christmas Carols from Kings College are sounding very good, albeit a little distant… I suspect the highs will come back…
The wonders of rolling your own cables.

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You perhaps need to learn the art of heat shrink… if you do start making cables, it is worth getting a heat shrink gun… they are not much, and are far more effective than a hair dryer.

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Yes I thought about that, but just wanted to spend the minimum at the time to get me going. Myself, I would rather work overtime and make money at what I know, and pay someone else that knows what they are doing. Hell, I have been paying a lady to do my laundry for the last 12 years…not worth my time.:grinning:

It’s not difficult… and it’s a useful household skill being able to solder as well. Other than that all you really benefit from is a small vice, narrow nose pliers, adjustable wire strippers and a multimeter, some silver solder. … oh yes and a pair of ears… Getting hold of esoteric high grade audio cable is not as difficult or as expensive as it sounds.
BTW I’d say ironing a shirt well is far more difficult than making up most audio cables. :grinning:

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I second that!

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I was listening to “Advent Carols from King’s College London” and it sounds amazing. You get a real feel of the setting, acoustics and positioning within the choir. You can really feel the deeper bass on some of the tracks with the organ on them. Very impressive.

And… you don’t run the risk of blowing up the hairdryer from extended use :flushed:… the better half still thinks it just broke when she turned it on :face_with_hand_over_mouth::shushing_face: close call, surprised I got away with it!

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I thought I would mention that for the last week or so my digital front end has been sounding excellent. The Meridian/M-Scaler/Qutest are absolutely singing, with some help from Wave, the ENO filter/cable and SBoosters.

When I had to put my Geddon back into service I ran out of plug points on my HiFi spur, so I fitted a couple of IEC extenders to the Oppo and Geddon so I could use the same mains cable for either. When I started listening to the digital front end I unplugged the MOFI Phono Stage AND the Oppo 105D. This made another small but appreciable difference.

Listening to my LP12/Aro/Geddon was like putting on a comfy pair of slippers, I am enjoying the Ultraphono. Buuuuuut, the digital front end is stonking. There are some albums which I do prefer through the LP12, but I would far more often give the nod to the digital.

I know I have bored everyone already with this observation but I really must tip my hat to Chord with the Qutest, it is capable of soooo much with a bit of help.

M

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What’s also remarkable is its size. If you ever take a look inside the circuitboard is quite small. So much packed into a small but great DAC! Fits any space.

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It definitely good to practice your soldering and heat shrink skills even if it is just to repair accidentally damaged commercial cables.

It is also quite fun to make your own cables, I have yet to make one that sounds any different to commercial ones, including Naim.

Can you please make me done tellurium q ultra black speaker cables then please because I can’t afford the real ones st the moment?

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I was thinking more of line level signal cables, but you could try Naim’s own cook book speaker cables. You might have to look up the ‘recipe’ which referenced an RS part number for the cable and confirmed the number of turns per length!

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Could be worse… I’d be upgrading from Silver 2 to Ultra Silver :flushed:

That WILL be a while before it happens! :joy:

It will be sometime next year for me. Frankly it sounds so incredibly good now I’m in no rush. Truly amazed at how good it all is and how much I’ve been missing in albums I love until now. Other than a few cables, I’ve got a matching usb on order, this will be staying with me unchanged for a very long time

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Anyone see the recipe in the Guardian recently that called for blow drying the Xmas duck?

I sense a punchline coming but can’t imagine what it is.

A real Christmas Quacker