[jmimac351]

I have owned a pair of Cardas Twinlink speaker cable for many years.  It uses their 2x11.5 Twisted Pair conductors.  Coincidentally that same wire is in my amps. 

I have been looking into speaker cables / wire in general and noticed the good stuff seems to be air core dielectrics, using hollow tubes to create space, separating the wires with a structure like the YellowAirReference Danny talked about. 

So, the thought occurred to me, would it be a performance benefit if I cut the jacket off of the Cardas Twinlink and twisted the cables / wire around a cotton core, then maybe wrap with some ERS tape, or not.  These cables are not expensive and I just wonder if creating more air like that would be worth it.  If it is worth it, it makes it clear how hard it is for cable designers to do what they'd really like to do, and have it not look "homemade" or be too fragile. 

Curious what others think.

[Early B.]

Start from scratch if you wanna experiment. Keep it simple and begin by DIYing an RCA digital cable. I'm guessing you'll be amazed at how challenging it will be and the money you'll need to spend for a "decent" cable. 

[jmimac351]

Well I own these cables already… I guess the point I’m making is that as I’m digging into this, “creating air around the conductor” is a good idea. And for cable companies, doing that in a way that creates a buttoned up product can be hard to do.

It’s hard the “create air” around conductors and have it be tidy and not fragile.

There’s a reason why Danny posted that video about those “yellow air reference” cables. I think “air did the trick”.

I own 200’ of Anticables bulk 17awg “red wire” with ultra thin dielectric. Those could be twisted around cotton with 1” radius (or ?) and held together loosely. Fragile, delicate… and maybe even super simple and really good.

I’ll have some “name brand great wire” here soon. One may not have to spend a fortune if the air like I’m describing is one of the big clues for great sound.

Just something that has occurred to me as I’m seeing it over and over. You have to dig into the construction details of the wire. And that’s another clue… who proudly shares those details about their product, and who just has flowery prose.

The YellowAir cables have an entire document showing the construction of the cables, and (Why?).  That’s very intentional and I pay attention to stuff like that. When people that know more want to explain stuff, let ‘em keep talkin’ and pay attention.

[Letitroll98]

I'm uncertain what the YellowAir cables are, but some general thoughts on the posts here, apologies if off topic.  An air dielectric means bare wire suspended in an airtight tube.  If you have an insulator (dielectric) on that wire it's no longer an air dielectric, suspending already insulated wire in an air tube is ridiculous and serves no purpose.  That's how I'm reading these posts, please feel free to correct if I'm wrong about that.  The main factors in audio cables are geometry, construction, material, and dielectric, in that order.  So if you don't have the geometry and construction correct the dielectric and material are irrelevant.  Air dielectric cables have been noted for their clear presentation (airey?), but unless sealed with an inert gas the wires will eventually corrode.  No, not all the best cables use air for a dielectric.

[Zuman]

I know that cables impact reproduced sound, but I've always regarded them as the "decoration" on my audio house rather than the "foundation." That means that most of my investment has gone into areas like speakers, amps, and front ends. Nevertheless, it's the decor that I live with on a daily basis, so I have been careful about my cable choices. I own Hapa aerogel interconnects, and they are very, very good. They use aerogel as another way of accomplishing what you're talking about. I do NOT own M101 Supernova speaker cables (I do own an M101 LAN cable), but they also address the air dialectric approach. They are spectacularly good, at least in the audio show settings where I've heard them. They look like this...

[corndog71]

While it can be fun to get creative with the wires you have, in my experience they will pale when compared to real engineered cables.  Then again you might come up with something special.

I’m a fan of Iconoclast cables.  They explain in great detail how and why their cables are made.  Even their budget BAV cables are very open and dynamic sounding compared to other brands.

[Danny Richie]

Using an air core or even a cotton rope or Teflon tube is a good way to create separation for braided or counter rotating geometry's that can act as a filter in higher frequency ranges to reduce RFI and EMI.

However, there is not much to gain by doing that with a single pair of wires. It is best in this case to simply twist them to gain some of the same effect.

[zlib]

I spent a lot of time studying various DIY cable constructions and now my favorite one is Steve Reeve's Helix Image Air design. There was a website with the articles, but now it is shut down. Recently, I helped Steve to host them as pdf files on my github account. Here it is: https://github.com/live-sound/helix
I built several interconnects and power cables with this design and haven't heard anything better yet. And yes, this one uses air as dielectric

[jmimac351]

Holy cow!  All of this knowledge lurking in the shadows...  Lots to check out here! 

Thanks All! 

[jmimac351]

While it can be fun to get creative with the wires you have, in my experience they will pale when compared to real engineered cables.  Then again you might come up with something special.

I’m a fan of Iconoclast cables.  They explain in great detail how and why their cables are made.  Even their budget BAV cables are very open and dynamic sounding compared to other brands.

I was looking at those... lots of info on them.  Lot's of technical info.  I started to read about the "1x4 and 2x4" or something like that but I'd have to read it a few times to get what's going on.  I don't understand it, but I watch for patterns and finding clues here and there, the way things are done and why.

I am very likely to try 2x 1M Cardas Clear Reflection XLR between DAC --> Pre --> Amps.  Right now I have Shunyata Research Theta speaker cables (those were launched this year).  The single Cardas Clear Sky XLR inserted in place of 1 Mogami 2549 XLR made a huge difference in the system.  That lit the fire on wire.

[nlitworld]

I spent a lot of time studying various DIY cable constructions and now my favorite one is Steve Reeve's Helix Image Air design. There was a website with the articles, but now it is shut down. Recently, I helped Steve to host them as pdf files on my github account. Here it is: https://github.com/live-sound/helix
I built several interconnects and power cables with this design and haven't heard anything better yet. And yes, this one uses air as dielectric

Thank you for hosting that info. Always enjoyed reading through his designs.

[jmimac351]

This Inakustic stuff looks very interesting!

https://in-akustik.com/ls-1205-air-00770143par

[corndog71]

Funny.  I actually thought of a cable just like this.  Couldn’t figure out the plastic part though.

[jmimac351]

Funny.  I actually thought of a cable just like this.  Couldn’t figure out the plastic part though.

Me too.

The "YellowAir Reference" is similar.  It's "printing up on 3D printer stuff".  I just got a 3D printer and have to try to learn that "thing".  I figured a few circles with holes in them and a piece of plastic connecting them.  The plastic piece would need to be thin enough to flex a little while it holds the circles together. 

It's not "professional production quality".  This HomeMade to do a particular thing... suspend wires in "space".  (And to mess around with 3D printing stuff  )

Cardas wire is Litz coated.  All of the visible jacket can be removed and it would look like "bare wire", but it's not.  It would just have an ultra thin dielectric.

This is the "AIReference by Yellow" cable Danny tried, and liked: