Who carries Canare? I have had a few recommendations of some products they make.
Well I am going to have a solid block of copper that will be hopefully two inches thick and two to three tall in-between the transformer and the rest of the amplifier. I think that might do the trick. It seems to of worked for Peter, and 6moons did not seem to mention any problem with it.
I am not going to use a tuna fish can
. My amplifier will be made of acrylic tappable plastic most likely. Better look than wood, not as bad of sound as metal.
I am scared of some binding posts too... Spades are a must or banana ends.... However as you do know the Cardas one does not suffer from a problem and can actually use straight coaxial like I was going to run, with probably nothing on the ends. 89259! I am a believer.
I did buy a kit for the amplifier, premium one from Peter. It does not have any thing with it but the PCB and basic components.
I have already been playing around with stuff on my Frankenstein project. The few things I know are wire is of major important, copper binding posts are god like in comparison to any thing else, and cables are unbelievably important. The difference between every change I have made is noticeable instantly. I can understand where Cat5 gets a little acclaim of higher capacitance but truth be told it is not that high compared to most stuff that cost a lot. I think short runs of Cat5 are best, and am not interested in ever using it for interconnects or speaker wire.
I think I might go with these RCA jacks
http://www.diycable.com/main/product_info.php?cPath=26_136&products_id=548, they have copper and an ok price. I would LOVE some WBT copper ones but at $45 a piece or what ever.... Unless some one knows another place to get copper RCA jacks and plugs, or any with even content of.... I just need to find some RCA plugs that have copper content I guess, to match.
The RCA cables themselves are going to be 89259 for signal, and 89248 for ground. According to Jon Risch this is the best way and I believe him. 89259 is amazing stuff, and for signal it should be used, but in order to supply a component with better conductivity the non-signal using a better conducting solid core completely makes sense to me. You twist the two cores together, put some thing over them, and then shielding (perhaps some from DIY cable), then what ever you want over the top of that. I realize this makes some fatty cables but the coaxial is easy to get, will be shielded for my dorm setup, and will compete with several hundred dollar interconnects.
Just so you know my other plans include new speaker cables of 89259, with spacers through out the entire length (Jon Risch was smoking crack when he said to twist them, worst idea ever that I tried). I am going to use Bryant round ends for power cables and some Hubble square for into the wall, with basic 14 gauge AC wire, that will be braided in a set of four minus the ground. Then at the ends I am going to clamp a ferrite piece over the positive and negative stands, run the ground over the top of the ferrite clamp. I am also going to make a plug in box with some Bryant plugs. I will have amazing conductivity short of absolutely nothing but gold plating like in some Kimber sockets and ends.
This "little project" should with some hope compete with a lot of members some what nicer stuff. I am going to be using two XM1 crossovers from Marchand, with some upgraded OPAMPs I think. Black Velvet pot (yeah I know attenuators are nice but I will run shunt mode with perhaps some resistors for log response). The only short coming maybe be my speakers, but for near field desk listening I am only going to be able to work with so much. My next speakers I think might be some CSS full ranges, they are impressive. I am also going to add a subwoofer to fill in for my little bookshelvers.
My speaker stands for a desk are almost done, I used TNT audio's stubby idea, took it a little further. I am going to use some brass screws at the bottom instead of bullets, and made a more concrete design for holding the PVC in place. They are about $10 stands
(a pair, if that).
