DIY cable gallery

[n_maher]

Good grief those are expensive.

[luvdunhill]

Good grief those are expensive.

depends who you know I guess I thought a certain someone was going to do a little groupy buy?

[n_maher]

depends who you know I guess I thought a certain someone was going to do a little groupy buy?

Evidently I do not know the right people.

[luvdunhill]

Evidently I do not know the right people.

or maybe they are the quiet, sneaky type. or maybe not.

[Dusty Chalk]

Nice looking plugs. Now all we need are WBT silver XLR's with matching sockets. Wonder what they would cost...

I hope you mean silver plate -- solid silver would be too soft, I would think.

[spritzer]

There are plenty of pure silver connectors out there, Goertz, Eichmann, WBT and Bocchino all spring to mind. Stealth Audio also has solid silver connectors, RCA, XLR and even power connectors.

[Smeggy]

depends on what you alloy it with.

Tritanium from the Enterprise.

[n_maher]

Good grief those are expensive.

I was wrong, the Cardas bits are uncommonly affordable in terms of audiophile XLRs...

KOSMIC.us | Interconnect Connectors

[Hopstretch]

i'd only pay that for cesium plated connectors.

RHODIUM or GTFO.

[Dusty Chalk]

I was wrong, the Cardas bits are uncommonly affordable in terms of audiophile XLRs...

KOSMIC.us | Interconnect Connectors

(choke)

[Fitz]

Finally got pissed off enough at the stock cable being annoying due to cable memory, so I recabled my K1000:

I gotta learn to take better pictures than this if I'm ever gonna put a website back up though.

I've also seen posts lately about the K1000 being difficult to recable / easy to damage, which leaves me a bit confused after having gone through the process myself. I guess it's difficult if you've never really recabled headphones before? I found the whole process fairly straightforward, especially since I didn't have to make any new strain reliefs or anything like on some other phones.

[Duggeh]

Good job there sir! I don't suppose that you took photos of the process?

My understanding of why it's difficult is because it's tricky to reassemble the parts of the cages/housing after they've come apart.

[Dusty Chalk]

I thought it was difficult because the drivers are particularly prone to damage due to inadequate heatsinking during the soldering process. I presume they still sound okay?

[Fitz]

Good job there sir! I don't suppose that you took photos of the process?

My understanding of why it's difficult is because it's tricky to reassemble the parts of the cages/housing after they've come apart.

Thanks! No, I didn't take photos of the process, but it probably wouldn't be too big of a deal to take one side back apart for photos tomorrow. The grilles are annoying sometimes, but I wouldn't call them tricky to reassemble so long as you know how it's supposed to go together.

I thought it was difficult because the drivers are particularly prone to damage due to inadequate heatsinking during the soldering process. I presume they still sound okay?

I'd be pretty concerned over what kind of ape is doing the soldering if they manage to cause damage from heat. The way it works is a little weird to describe without pictures, but I'll give it a shot anyways. The voice coil solders to a pair of metal posts on the back side of the enclosure, these posts do a couple bends to bring them closer together then come out the front side of the enclosure. The PCB has two slots on one side with solder pads around it, so it slides in place against the rods then it's soldered together on that side. The cable has to be soldered to the PCB before it goes in like this, as it routes behind the PCB and is soldered on the back in a different spot.

Getting the PCB out to replace the cable is ridiculously easy... remove the two screws then hold the soldering iron across both solder joints for the posts (they're real close) while pulling the PCB away. Only takes a couple seconds to heat it and remove it with a proper soldering iron. Same thing going back in... might have to reflow the solder on the board if it's blocking the little slots for the posts, then just set it back into place and resolder the posts to it.

[spritzer]

I thought it was difficult because the drivers are particularly prone to damage due to inadequate heatsinking during the soldering process. I presume they still sound okay?

I blame it on ape's doing the soldering as by the same reasoning the Stax drivers should never even be touched with a soldering iron. With the Lambda drivers you are soldering directly to the brass rings which clamp the diaphragm in place or directly to the stator plates which are held in place by small plastic bits which could easily melt.

[Fitz]

Pictures as requested by teh duggeh: http://www.head-case.org/forums/do-yourself/6139-k1000-recable-guide.html

[Smeggy]

Very nice Fitz, do mine next

[n_maher]

I needed some IC's for the soldering rig (lent out my loaner cables) so I whipped these up last night. I think I will call them the Dusty Chalk series.

24ga solid core Neotech UPOCC in PVC w/ Neutrik RCAs.

[Hopstretch]

I'll trade you some Mogamis for them.

[guzziguy]

Your usual nice work Nate! It never ceases to impress me.

[Dusty Chalk]

Hawt.

[Augsburger]

You braid really well. How do you do that? Mine always come out uneven.

Adding one more to the eye candy archive.

[n_maher]

Thanks for the kind words guys.

Stretch, I see what you did right there.

Greg, I find the key to a uniform braid is as simple as having a solid anchor point. That lets you have a consistent tension on the wires and keep the same relative angle as you progress.

[swt61]

Thanks for the kind words guys.

Stretch, I see what you did right there.

Greg, I find the key to a uniform braid is as simple as having a solid anchor point. That lets you have a consistent tension on the wires and keep the same relative angle as you progress.

I find armpit hair a great place to practice this technique.

Great work Nate!

[ingwe]

braid first, then terminate.