This just in. Done and sounding absolutely incredbile!
CUSTOM FULL 999 SILVER HEAD SHELL WIRES (Photos courtesy of Fuji Finepix F10)
CUSTOM HYBRID RCA CONNECTS
999 HEADSHELL WIRES: RIO GRANDE JEWELRY SUPPLY
.999 FINE SILVER SOFT WIRE 30ga 5.58-30 FEET OR SO
.999 FIND SILVER TUBING .057 OD/ 1.1 MM ID 3.26-FOOT
EBAY-MUNDORF SILVER SOLDER 9% SILVER .3%(?)OR SO GOLD 6.00- 3 feet
can of BLACK DIP IT 4.00 or so(Home Depot)
Cutting these you will need jewelers saw blades. Very fine tooth count
on the blade. A jewelers work clamp as well. Split down the middle about
3/16. I did not measure, just eyeballed it. My saw blade's were very fine,
but still too large. Had to cut them on the forward stroke cause the teeth
still bit. Get good blades from Rio- laser gold was the name. Good quality
flexible alloy that don't break as quickly as other all steel blades.
Soldering was a challenge, I put wire in rubber band tensioned pliers,
then picked up solder on clip, and quickly moved it to wire.
Once soldered I used the Black Dip It to cover the wires, and protect
the ends from flexing. I made it thicker at the ends to fight the proclivity of
the wire to stress bend there and break.
1.1 mm ID worked great!!! A little fiddling to get them tight, but they worked!!
Deoxit- cheapest price I found it was at Guitar Centers Musicville. All connections were blissfully soaked with Deoxit.
RCA PLUG
RIO- SilverTubing .999 .128 x .010 12" $11.16 (center pin)
Home Depot-Copper tubing 3/8 OD/ proper ID for RCA 12.50 or so
EBAY Mundorf Silver Solder
Ok these were straight forward. After looking and looking and looking for
99.99 OFC high conductivity copper tubing all over, I settled on 99.95 copper
tubing, the .05 being phosphorous. I like the sound of Phosphor Bronze guitar
strings, so I settled on Refrigerator Copper Coil at Home Depot.
Cut them, slotted them 2x times, and drilled a hole for the negative conductor. I needed to drill the hole as the silver solder was having
a hard time sticking. Attach the wire, then put the iron on the copper and
let it heat up untill the solder flows. This gave best sweat and contact.
I flowed at least 4, 1/4 inch solder pieces into the center pins. I started with 2, but I had to cut them and re position the copper sleeves as I had them
too far out. Cut the center (+) lead shorter than the negative outer.
Installing was a little tricky. I used fine nosed pliers to nurse the center
pin into full seated depth. I did not do this the first time I shoved them in.
I should have wrapped the center pin at the base with electrical tape to
strengthen it. Guess I will just dab on some Dip It when I get around to it.
And the verdict. OMG!!!
Insane!!! Whoever said that silver makes the sound drier, I don't know what
they are talking about. Everything is perfect. The Bass is incredible, treble details insane!!! Fine imaging. Words do not convey the fineness!!
I put them on once, and did not like them. I put on some brass silver plated RCA's, bought in China. The sound was so muffled and reedy.
The bass smeared. So I had to resweat the silver copper back on. I think the extra silver to do it made a difference.Any questions? fire away!
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) is insane!!! Definitely found my recording rig now!!!
