Thanksgiving cables

DaveC

Industry Expert
Nov 16, 2014
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I'm using the FA-220-50 cable and the FP-601 and 602 connectors. However I have built cables with the much cheaper 701/702 connectors and they are very nice for the price. Much better than they look in the pictures. they look plastic, but are solid brass under the paint, and use their Alpha copper conductors.

The CF-600 series is well worth the price over the FP-600 series for XLR plugs and AC plugs. I agree the 700 series is a serious bargain.
 

DaveC

Industry Expert
Nov 16, 2014
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I didn't realize DaveC was a Furutech/Neotech dealer. He even has some special silver/gold alloys, and teflon coated silver and copper 26 gauge bulk cable!! Also good prices on the connectors. I think I know where I'll be getting my next bulk cable/connectors :)

His pre-terminated stuff looks beautiful as well. Prices look very reasonable for what you get.

http://www.zenwaveaudio.com/diy-parts/

PS: I've also learned something here about Neotech. I had no idea Furutech was no longer licensed to make the OCC wire anymore:

http://www.zenwaveaudio.com/home-3/667-2/


I'm very impressed with everything I see on this website. No snake oil here, this is the real deal!

I didn't see this before the other 2 posts, thanks! My cables aren't much more expensive than the retail cost of parts, an advantage of direct sales and low overhead.

Also keep in mind my OCC silver/gold alloy is about 50% more expensive vs UPOCC silver as used in top of the line Wireworld and Siltech cables, my cables have been preferred over these brands top end cables regularly. My D4 has about a 90% demo to sale rate...

Anyway, if anyone has any questions on wire or connectors I'd be happy to answer...
 

Blizzard

Banned
Sep 30, 2015
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I didn't see this before the other 2 posts, thanks! My cables aren't much more expensive than the retail cost of parts, an advantage of direct sales and low overhead.

Also keep in mind my OCC silver/gold alloy is about 50% more expensive vs UPOCC silver as used in top of the line Wireworld and Siltech cables, my cables have been preferred over these brands top end cables regularly. My D4 has about a 90% demo to sale rate...

Anyway, if anyone has any questions on wire or connectors I'd be happy to answer...


I believe you. I know quality when I see it. What you offer is the real deal at far below the price of any competitor I'm aware of.
 

DaveC

Industry Expert
Nov 16, 2014
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nc42, I'm always happy to send out demos, shoot me an email at dave at zenwaveaudio.com :)

Amir, No coax, no twisted pairs either. I use UPOCC copper litz wire in a litz braid, or I hand-braid/twist smaller gauge wire to form a litz wire by hand, which is then used in a litz braid. My designs are variations on litz-type cable for high frequency transmission. I can add shielding if needed though, but I never use shielding as a ground connection/return, it's always only connected at one end. Coax is a cheap, simple solution that works great but I've never heard a really good sounding coax cable for analog or digital.

Blizzard, I'm really happy you see that, there's so many choices and so much competition it's easy to be dismissed as just another cable company when in fact I am having my own wire manufactured and selling at prices 1/3rd to 1/5th of my competition for similar or better cables. I thought it would be evident but very few recognize what my cables are until they try them. Marketing in this industry is very difficult and it's not what I'm best at.
 

DaveC

Industry Expert
Nov 16, 2014
3,899
2,141
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On your Xlr cables do you run the ground closed ended or open?

Closed, as in both ends connected... While XLRs technically don't need a ground for return it's still a fact that the resistance between ground planes of components is directly related to noise through "SCIN" or shield-current induced noise, my cables all have fairly heavy gauge ground connections to reduce this resistance as much as possible, including power cables. The current standards are to attach pin 1 to chassis ground near the jack, and most components have signal and chassis ground connected directly, so I use pin 1 to reduce resistance between components, thus reducing noise. A pair of D4s has about a 15g combined ground using UPOCC silver wire.
 

Blizzard

Banned
Sep 30, 2015
3,049
3
0
nc42, I'm always happy to send out demos, shoot me an email at dave at zenwaveaudio.com :)

Amir, No coax, no twisted pairs either. I use UPOCC copper litz wire in a litz braid, or I hand-braid/twist smaller gauge wire to form a litz wire by hand, which is then used in a litz braid. My designs are variations on litz-type cable for high frequency transmission. I can add shielding if needed though, but I never use shielding as a ground connection/return, it's always only connected at one end. Coax is a cheap, simple solution that works great but I've never heard a really good sounding coax cable for analog or digital.

Blizzard, I'm really happy you see that, there's so many choices and so much competition it's easy to be dismissed as just another cable company when in fact I am having my own wire manufactured and selling at prices 1/3rd to 1/5th of my competition for similar or better cables. I thought it would be evident but very few recognize what my cables are until they try them. Marketing in this industry is very difficult and it's not what I'm best at.


If you assume the majority is educated in these facts, you are making a poor assumption. Most are educated by salesmen and marking hype. And when you try to offer real education, you are met with brutal retaliation. My mission on this forum is to educate these people. I'm relentless when it comes to my cause, so hopefully I eventually get through to the stubbornest of cases. Only the greedy prosper from ignorance.
 

DaveC

Industry Expert
Nov 16, 2014
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What is your % shielding?

I don't shield shorter runs of cable, XLR or RCA for line level application if it's not necessary. I usually shield phono cables and for this I'll use a heavy tinned copper shield spaced away from the wires a good bit using a few layers of pure cotton tubing. It's necessary for the small signal and occasionally EMF from tt motors, not all tt mfgers route the cables away from the motor's EMF, believe it or not... I have found many tt's phono cables don't need to be shielded although it's a trade off... the shielded cable will be measurably quieter but the shield dulls the sound a bit and most people subjectively prefer an unshielded cable, as long as there isn't AC coupling (hum, buzz) going on.

I'm considering a shielding system that could be placed even further from the conductors vs a heavy copper shield, Techflex makes a jacket that is made with conductive carbon. 2 layers of this with a drain wire in between could be very effective and not have as much negative impact on the sound vs a braided copper shield. It also won't make the cable stiff, heavy and hard to handle like a larger diameter copper shield does. Ideally though, the cable shield should have it's own ground connection back at the power distribution point, a few companies are doing this currently. It adds a lot of complexity and expense for something that is not going to improve the sound in a great majority of situations though.
 

DaveC

Industry Expert
Nov 16, 2014
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The reason I asked was for the link between the tonearm and phono preamp.

I actually have two of the exact same cable except one is shielded and the other not, if you want to compare them... it's the D3 RCA model.
 

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