New guy here

[oldtexasdog 2,456]

How about that Greenbay Dallas game? I'm a "Cheesehead" living in Colleyville.

 

Saw a Cheese Head at the game that was wearing the CB colors even on his cheese head hat!!

I'm just a little North West of you out by Justin. 

[markfugate 9]

We're neighbors by DFW standards

[B-Man 4,780]

...<Snip> My design goal was to attempt to get as close to an air dielectric as possible and eliminate as many forms of dielectric absorption and potential capacitance as possible...<Snip>

 

Welcome to the nuthouse Mark !!! I applaud your willingness to experiment and share. The fact that you are on your 5th iteration of your cable is a testament to the work involved in designing anything of value or functionality. You will not find ridicule in this forum, unless you are willing to argue a point that is known to be incorrect, from a physics standpoint.

 

I have a question - do you feel that the level of capacitance in the interconnect cable is more important or signal destructive than potential noise / hum induced because of the lack of shielding ?

 

I ask because I am certain the electronics in the TT were designed with an expected range of capacitance and resistance for interconnection. Has your testing included making measurements with electronics that can verify the end effect of the cables on the output signal in the pre-amp ? 

 

Thanks again for sharing and I look forward to more information (and pictures  ) as your project continues.

[hewlew1 258]

Welcome to the forum Mark

[markfugate 9]

B-Man,

 

First, I have no test equipment. My evaluations are purely subjective. That is, 'does it sound better to me?' after living with a configuration for a multitude of listening sessions.

 

I was discussing subjective evaluations with a friend that is an electrical engineer earlier today and my friend Randy told me "I [Randy] pursued electrical engineering because of my [Randy] love of audio, and that proves there is more that we don't know than what we do know with regards to measuring electrical systems".

My asserted capacitance values are based upon calculations which can be found in "Harry E. Green, A Simplified Derivation of the Capacitance of a Two-Wire Transmission Line, IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques, Vol. 47, No. 3, March 1999, p. 365-366" and online calculators.

 

A couple of such quick calculators can be found at the links below:

 

        http://www.ampbooks.com/home/amplifier-calculators/wire-capacitance/

 

        http://www.cirris.com/learning-center/calculators/174-cable-capacitance-calculator

 

I have used both and prefer the first one because it is the quickest and easiest. And, if someone believes that I am being less than 'scientific', so be it, it's my listening pleasure and fun that is my highest priority.

 

My first two configurations had a high degree of hum and another suffered from noise. I addressed hum with distance separation and ordering of the conductors, and adding a single twist around my two inch cotton core. That caused all of the conductors to cross each other in a perpendicular manner a single time between the turntable and the preamp.  The left and right hot wires were at the farthest distance from each other which gave them an 8 cm separation.  The associated commons were in the middle and separated by 2cm from each other and their associated hot wires.

 

The end result was an honest consistent 180 degree sonic image which also had greater depth than I had ever heard before without the sonic hologram. This also greatly enhanced the sonic hologram. I should also add that I also use cotton dielectric interconnects between my preamp and power amps.  I use the M400t's in a passive bi-amp configuration.  Just stereo here.

 

Concerning noise, I was able to eliminate non-ambient, external EMI and RFI noise, and noticeably reduce ambient noise using an old trick I call a "Magic Brick".

 

I can not take credit for the Magic Brick because I first read about this in an 'Absolute Sound' product review back around 1980 or so. However, I can claim some credit for my version of the Magic Brick (a picture of one will be inserted below). Don't laugh or guffaw until you try this and live with it for a period of time.

 

My Magic Brick is nothing more than a cigar box packed full of ransom sized ferromagnetic objects, antenna ground wires of random lengths and twists, and pennies all wrapped in copper foil, and placed above power transformers and any large inductors. Except of course speakers. I also use numerous power cord ferrites on all power cords.

 

I do not believe that any one of these tricks, other than the interconnects and my handcrafted speaker cables makes a huge difference.  I believe that all of these things in conjunction with some tricks combined makes the improvements.  That being said, don't expect that just adding power cord ferrites, or changing one set of interconnects will yield the results I have experienced.  I often times think I have been lucky and have also wondered what sort of mileage other may get? 

 

 

 

Two Magic Bricks setting atop M400t's

 

My choice of cotton as my dielectric/insulation is because I needed a substrate to keep all wires uniform.  I chose not to use any other materials because I wanted to eliminate all dielectric absorption that was possible.  That is why I do not use Teflon, polyolefin, TechFlex, or worst of all, PVC and stranded wires.  The only foreign material is a wee tiny bit of Kester 60/40 solder in the smallest amount.  The 30 AWG wire shows through the solder joint.