For non-commercial use it makes no sense to use anything other than leaded solders, and risk to health is small as exposure is limited, and possibly precautions are taken anyway.
In commercial setting and where Health and Safety considerations and liability issues arise the swap to non leaded solder was inevitable, but higher temperature and more difficult to use, and suspicion of an increase risk of so called ‘whiskers’ do not count in its favour.
Try proper lead free for yourself, particularly the eutectic lead solder, and the soldering experience will be evident.
I decided last week to upgrade my previous Chord Odyssey 2 speaker cable. Had it for over 15yrs. My dealer was happy to take it as a trade-in against Chord EpicX.
Dealer is definitely a hifi enthusiast and last month he gave me a demo of the Chord EpicX XLR interconnect against the std Xlr that the NSC222 comes with. The std cable is great but the Epic has a fuller sound with more top end sparkle. He swapped between both cables a number of times and you could clearly hear the difference. Nice looking cable with a silver finish.
So this morning everything was ready for pickup and I drove the 120km to get the equipment.
He fitted Chord Ohmic plugs to the speaker cable and it all looked great.
I decided to add both cables at the same time and now its a waiting game until they’ve burnt in.
Looks really good! After reading many of @Skeptikal 's posts, I have stripped my system back to basics and I have to say the sound improved with every component I removed (ethernet switches, linear power supplies, expensive ethernet cables, expensive interconnects etc.).
My mains extension block is the final frontier! I have purchased all the bits I need to also make one of these; but, I am unsure how to wire it correctly. Would you mind pointing me in the direction of the posts you mention? Many thanks in advance
ps. thanks for all the advice you share @Skeptikal. My system has never sounded so good!
I was lucky enough to pick up some very well looked after Epix X speaker cable on eBay and I must admit it is a great sounding cable. For me, the Epic range is the sweet spot in the Chord line up. It is a significant improvement over the ranges below it; but the ones above it are only an incremental step up for a lot more money.
@What_Are_You_To_Me
Many thanks to you for support.
I’m delighted that pure and simple really does do the trick and over complicated just looks impressive but puts far too much in the way.
Boutique cables are just that “ handbags “.
I try my best to help and have nothing to gain but the satisfaction of hard earned shared.
Best Wishes.
After having owned lots of the aforementioned cables and then doing an A/B test with the standard Naim ‘violet’ I was astonished that if anything the sound quality improved and was a lot warmer. Removing the expensive ethernet switch, ethernet cable and various other unnecessary addons made an even bigger difference!
I have 1Gb broadband so I don’t even have an ethernet cable going into my NDX2 anymore, I just use the WiFi antennas. You only need ethernet if your wifi is not strong enough to carry the file size…for me, that really does show the whole switch/power supply/ethernet cable market is a real hussle (and that is coming from someone who has owned very expensive versions of these)…
That is great, thank you. Do I need to drill a hole in the side of the plastic box/housing to run the cable out? Also, do you mind me asking where you buy your ferrels from?
The socket has knock out sections - just carefully knock out the most appropriate one for you and clean the edges up. Then you’ll need to install the cable clamp to stop the cable moving too much. That’s the only part I wobble about using a socket designed for wall mounting in a “mobile” application. Even if it isn’t mobile very often!
You just push out the weak pre stressed parts that are called breakouts you can see them easy held up to light weak squares.
I put a cable tie inside to stop any chance of the cable being pulled.
The ferrules I buy are nude ferrules from eBay and for 1.5mm2 conductors.
There are some multi size boxes around too.
Not expensive at all.
If you’re MK plug is the type with the screw down clamps inside then you only need ferrels on the socket side.
I can see it’s an MK but not sure if toughplug or safety plug.
Either is fine.
Good luck and enjoy.
Your advice is always clear and definitely worth trying out. I recently built a mains extension based on yours. Wish I had a plug with through hole terminals though. The binding post type is a pain to connect.
Keep it coming
@Mikee
Thank you so much I’m never sure if I’m taken seriously so many have blinkers.
It fills me up to think I’m helping and bringing some value and enjoyment.
The plugs I’m using with a through hole is MK Toughplug MK 0655W
Great plugs and a joy to wire up.
Best regards.
