AES EBU 110 Ohm Digital Cable

The very first real-time software MP3 player was a program called WinPlay3. This program was released way back in September of 1995, back in the days of half gig hard drives. As MP3s gained popularity and began to distract computer users from glorious MIDI music, Winamp from Nullsoft was released in 1997 and by the next year, Winamp in its various iterations was downloaded over 3 million times. Several years later, the first version of iTunes was released to the public in 2001. Fast forward to today, a little over a decade later, and computer audio has become very widely accepted and many audiophiles are more likely to fire up a PC than pop open a compact disc player.

The WinPlay3 Program

Because the CD player is going the way of the dodo (obsolescence), audiophiles choose to interface their PC with a DAC (digital audio converter) in order to extract the music in the best sounding way possible. A DAC requires a digital signal be carried from the PC to the external DAC. In some cases the PC has a direct output for a digital signal from the motherboard or sound card, in other cases, a user may choose to use a USB to SPDIF converter box, such as the M2tech HiFace or Musical Fidelity V-Link to name a few.

Digital signals can be carried a few different ways, either optically or via a coaxial cable. Many enthusiasts frown upon optical cables due to perceived jitter and myriad other issues, although I have found the glass ones to be acceptable in the past. Optical cables actually isolate the ground from one device to another which can be a benefit in the case of a dirty ground at the source. The other option, a coaxial cable with a single center conductor isolated with a dielectric and a return which is typically a copper mesh over the dielectric, can be terminated with either an RCA or BNC.  In the case of the AES/EBU, there is still the copper mesh over the dielectric and there are two conductors in the center.

Standard digital coaxial cables are preferred to be rated at 75 ohms, and since BNC connectors are legitimately 75 ohms, they are preferred, but in many cases BNC connectors are not offered and an RCA will suffice. If you are lucky and your PC output and DAC both have an AES/EBU jack, then you’ll have the best possible connection between your devices. AES/EBU coax cable should be rated at 110 ohms.

AES/EBU, also known as AES3, was developed by the Audio Engineering Society (AES) and the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) way before the first software MP3 player in 1985 (although revised in ’92 and ’03) and is effectively the professional version of S/PDIF. Much more additional information regarding the AES/EBU standard, including protocols, time slots and channel status bits can be found at http://en.wikiaudio.org/AES_EBU .

Musical Fidelity V-Link 192 featuring an AES EBU connection

Now that we covered what an AES/EBU is and where it came from, I’ll go ahead and assemble a nice audiophile quality one. One of the fortunate things about the AES/EBU protocol is that is calls for a standard XLR connector, of which there are many audiophile versions floating around, I’m sure some of which use time-corrected flux capacitors and pixie dust gathered during ancient times. I’ll personally be using the DHLabs Silver Sonic XLRs, which is a strange name as the contacts are gold-plated pure OFC copper (no brass!), but they’re great connectors for the dollar, and the DHLabs Silver Sonic D-110 110ohm coax cable, which has silver plated copper conductors within a PTFE dielectric, spacers for constant impedance and a 100% coverage shield.

Silver Sonic D-110 Cable and XLRs

First on the agenda is covering the wire with some nice sleeving. I selected the Techflex brand Carbon Reflex sleeving, which is a polyethylene terepthalate material braided with 3M Ultra reflective monofilament. In simple terms, the weave reflects light and looks pretty impressive.

As noted in the photo below, there are two insulated wires (positive and negative) and a drain wire which connects to the shield for the ground. Also in the center is the Silver Sonic XLR female pieces.

Sleeved with Carbon Reflex

...and here are the Silver Sonic XLR male pieces.

Silver Sonic XLR male connector

Although not necessary, I sleeved the drain wire with Teflon like the other two conductors for uniformity.

Drain wire with Teflon sleeve

These wires are soldered in place on each of the male and female connectors. The ground wire (the drain wire in this case) is soldered to pin 1, the positive wire (red in this case) is soldered to pin 2, and the negative wire (black in this case) is soldered to pin 3. Also note that with the Silver Sonic connectors, slipping the boot over the decorative sleeving requires some patience.

XLR Pin Diagram

Once everything is soldered in place, the barrels of  the DHlabs connectors are slid over the soldered connections and the three screws over each connector are replaced. The two screws over the boot in the back back a very substantial strain relief system. Below you will see the finished digital AES EBU cable. 

Finished digital AES EBU Cable

Hope you enjoyed reading this post. If you are interested in having your own custom digital AES EBU cable (or any other cable) made, please contact Zynsonix for a quote.


The Fine Print:
The above steps detailing the building of a cable are for entertainment purposes only, and not to be performed under any circumstances. The owner of this blog and all associated parties can not / will not be held responsible if you attempt the process posted and cause physical harm to yourself, your surroundings or your property. Please keep this in mind.

Balanced XLR to RCA Cable

Balanced XLR interconnects are what many people consider to be a superior connection between components. Typically found in Pro-audio equipment, they feature three wires rather than the two in an unbalanced RCA interconnect. The three wire system includes hot, neutral and ground. Current flows through the hot and neutral with both an inverted and non-inverted version of the signal. The component only needs to sense the difference between the two signals which assists in rejecting common noise. Common noise includes RF and ground loops, both of which can be quite annoying.

Some higher-end components have taken notice that balanced XLR interconnects can be more ideal and include them as optional inputs and/or outputs. Unfortunately there are many components that do not offer them, so you may end up with a component with XLR outputs and another with only RCA inputs. In this case, an XLR to RCA cable can be used.

The parts needed are relatively self explanatory. An XLR connector on one side (may be male or female depending on the component), an RCA plug on the other side, and three wires to connect them. One can also use only two wires and short the XLR internally between pins one and three. Note the diagram below that pins one and three are connected to the sleeve of the RCA and pin two is attached to the tip.

Starting with a Neutrik NC3-FXXB (3 pin female XLR connector), each of the pins are identified by the small number that's actually printed on the front of the plug.

The inside of a Neutrik NC3-FXXB

If you follow this blog, you've already seen countless litz braids of silver plated copper in PTFE, so we will skip that and move on to the soldering of the individual wires to the solder tabs on the Neutrik XLR connector. Each joint should be heated quickly but adequately (not too long which could melt the plastic casing) which will result in nice shiny joints.

Wire soldered to the Neutrik XLR

Next comes the sleeving. In this particular case, the braided wire is covered with soft black nylon multifilament. The black nylon multifilament is made by the company TechFlex and has a nice vintage look. It can be purchased from online retailers like Cable Organizer and WireCare. In order to sleeve the wire, a hot knife is used to cut the sleeve to prevent fraying, it is then slowly slipped over the braided wire and once completely covered, the other end is cut with the hot knife. To hold the sleeving in place, adhesive heatshrink is used on the ends where the strain relief from the plug will eventually cover the cable.

Sleeved cable

As you will note below, the strain relief system is placed over the heatshrink to give it something to "grip" to. The metal barrel is then slipped over the front of the XLR plug.

Barrel and Strain Relief

The boot can now be slipped over the other end of the cable and screwed in place to secure the barrel and strain relief system. Neutrik does offer the FXX line with a number of different colors. I'm using red here to denote the right channel. 

XLR side is complete

Moving on to the other side of the cable, the RCA connector will be attached to the cable. First, the metal barrel for the RCA is slipped onto the cable, then the RCA connector soldered in place. Both the number 1 connection and number 3 connection from the XLR side are soldered to the ground or "sleeve" in this particular configuration. The number 2 connection is soldered to the signal or "tip". Once soldered in place, a small piece of heatshrink (in this case red) is used to prevent shorting between the ground and signal. The nylon sleeving is then slipped as far forward as it can go and the strain relief on the sleeve is crimped around it.  

RCA connector soldered in place

Now another piece of adhesive heatshrink is placed over the bottom of the RCA connector to act as additional strain relief and further secure the sleeving.

Heatshrink sleeving in place

Now the metal barrel of the RCA can be screwed on. The cable is now complete and can be tested. 

A single completed cable

The pair of XLR to RCA cables

I hope you enjoyed this post. If you are interested in purchasing a completed XLR to RCA cable, please contact Zynsonix.com.

The Fine Print:
The above steps detailing the building of a cable are for entertainment purposes only and not to be performed under any circumstances. The owner of this blog and all associated parties can not / will not be held responsible if you attempt the process posted and cause physical harm to yourself, your surroundings or your property. Please keep this in mind.

Furez Copper Subwoofer Cable

A subwoofer only reproduces a limited range of audio in your system, most likely a frequency range within 20Hz and 100Hz. With this being said, subwoofer cables aren't as critical as the interconnects responsible for a much wider range (in my humble opinion). So, if you're weighing the benefits of subwoofer cable versus a pair of interconnects between your CD player and amp, I'd say go with the interconnects first. Still, as audio enthusiasts, we can't simply ignore our poor subwoofers, can we?

Today I will be assembling a pair of subwoofer cables from Furez FZ162AA audio cable. This is a reasonably priced cable that features thick 16 gauge oxygen-free copper conductors (99.997% pure, aka 4Ns), a very adequate foamed polyethylene dielectric and a dual-shield (tinned copper braid and a aluminum foil wrap) to help protect against EMI/RFI interference. I'll also be using some Furez FZ100BS black and grey sleeving to dress up the cable a bit, and a set of Cardas GRMO Rhodium over silver-plate RCAs.

The cable itself is nice and thick, thicker than the Cardas Crosslink 1i interconnect cable.

Furez FZ162AA Audio Cable

Taking a look a little closer, you'll notice the thick 16 gauge copper conductors. Normally audiophile interconnects are between 20 and 24 gauge, so this is a bit thicker than typical and thus will have additional capacitance (Capacitance @ 1KHz: 20.86 pF/ft). One could even use it for a speaker cable at this thickness. Whether or not this will be beneficial when used as a subwoofer cable remains to be seen.

Furez cable detail

As mentioned above, I'll be using some Furez FZ100BS black and grey sleeving to dress up the cable. This sleeving is made specifically for Furez products by ViaBlue. To see some of ViaBlue's bling, check out this mini to RCA cable made using their products. The FZ100BS is made from Monofilament Polyethylene Terepthalate (PET) and Fiber Fillers.

Furex FZ100BS black and grey sleeving

Do note that a hot knife is needed to cut the sleeving, otherwise it will fray, as you will see in the image above. The hot knife melts the sleeving together and prevents this. Also note that as you sleeve the cable, you will lose some length as the sleeving is expanding slightly. This amounted to several extra inches for each five foot cable length.

Noting the cable stripped below, you will see the two 16 gauge conductors, one in red dielectric, one in black. You will also see the mesh copper shield. For this particular cable, the mesh shield will be soldered to the ground on the source side and not connected on the other (floating shield configuration).

Stripped wire

Here is the opposite end of the cable after tinning the conductors. Tinning simply means covering the conductors with solder in this case. On this end of the cable, the shielding is not connected, so it is trimmed down and isolated with 3M electrical tape. Note that the black conductor (ground / return) is cut slightly shorter intentionally.

Tinned conductors

Now we will be soldering the Cardas RCA connector to the conductors. This is done by removing the barrel of the connector, then sliding it over top of the cable with the tinned ends and lining them up with the appropriate solder terminals. The red conductor (signal) goes to the center pin and the black conductor (ground / return) is soldered to the inner barrel. The Cardas GRMO requires quite a bit of heat to ensure a proper joint. I find that a solder station with adjustable temperature is necessary. The joints should be strong and shiny when complete. 

Cardas GRMO soldered in place

Once the soldering is complete, the RCA needs ample time to cool (they will be extremely hot to the touch). Then the outer barrel can be screwed in place and 1/2" adhesive heatshrink placed on top to act as a strain relief. 

Barrel and heatshrink added

I tend to like to cover about half of the Cardas barrel with the heatshrink so that some of that shiny gold bling is still visible on the completed cable.  

Heatshrink in place over barrel

All that's left is heating up the heatshrink with the heat gun and we have a completed cable. A second identical cable was made for the right channel and now we have a very fancy pair of subwoofer cables.

A complete set of subwoofer cables

Hope you enjoyed reading this post. If you are interested in having your own custom subwoofer cable (or any other cable) made, please contact Zynsonix for a quote.

The Fine Print:
The above steps detailing the building of a cable are for entertainment purposes only, and not to be performed under any circumstances. The owner of this blog and all associated parties can not / will not be held responsible if you attempt the process posted and cause physical harm to yourself, your surroundings or your property. Please keep this in mind.

Pure Silver Mini to Mini Cable

A short mini to mini cable cable can be very handy when connecting a portable audio player to a portable amplifier. In some cases it's worthwhile to use a digital audio output, but not all portable devices offer this, so the venerable 3.5mm mini to mini will work perfectly well. In this particular post, I will be assembling a mini to mini cable using Cardas 5N (99.999% pure) silver wire and a pair of Neutrik mini connectors, the Neutrik NYS-231 BG to be exact. The B in the nomenclature stands for the black shell, and the G stands for gold contacts. This particular connector is chosen over the Switchcraft 35HD and the Canare F12 as the body is smaller and more easily fits on the face plate of portable amplifiers. You'll notice below that the connectors come in three parts, the connector piece with solder tabs, a barrel and a small tube that acts as a dielectric so the left and right solder joints do not short to the barrel, which is connected to ground.

A pair of Neutrik NYS-231BG

You may notice that the barrel inlets are rather small and not completely ideal for thicker sleeved cable. Because of this, I dremeled out the barrel inlet to create a larger opening. 

Barrels dremeled for larger diameter cable

Once this is complete, it is necessary to sand or file the rough areas so they don't grind up against the wire during use. Once the barrels are prepared, the solder tabs should be identified with a multimeter. In this case, the shorter leg A is the left signal (aka tip), the longer leg B is the right signal (aka ring), and C is ground (aka sleeve). 

Pinout of the Neutrik mini connector

As mentioned above, this cable will be using solid silver wire from Cardas. This wire will be sleeved with Teflon (PTFE) tubing. 

Cardas silver wire and Teflon tubing

Each wire is trimmed to the appropriate length and the Teflon tubing is then slipped over top. The Teflon acts as a dielectric and prevents the strands (aka conductors) from shorting to one another. It's a very good idea to get Teflon that's for a larger gauge than the wire you are using so it slips over it easily. In this case, 24 gauge silver is covered with 22 gauge Teflon.

Silver wire sleeved with Teflon

The three wires are braided together and soldered to the Neutrik connector. It's important for the Teflon tubing to go right up to the solder taps to prevent shorting.

Silver wire soldered to the Neutrik connector

Next comes the black nylon multifilament sleeving made by Techflex. This is 3/16" size, cut to length using a hot knife from Partsexpress. The hot knife prevents fraying at the ends by slightly melting where it cuts. Also note the dielectric material is slid in place before the barrel is screwed on. 

Black Nylon Multifilament

The barrel can then be screwed in place, and the other Neutrik connector installed the exact same way. In the photos below, 1/2" heat shrink is slipped over the barrels to provide additional strain relief and to offer the feel of a "rubberized"-type layer.  

Completed mini to mini cable

This can now be the connection between a portable audio player and a portable amp and not take up much real estate at all. Thanks for taking them time to read this post. If you are interested in purchasing a completed mini to mini cable, please contact Zynsonix.com.

For more pure silver goodness, check out a previous post detailing the build of pure silver interconnects. 

The Fine Print:
The above steps detailing the building of a cable are for entertainment purposes only and not to be performed under any circumstances. The owner of this blog and all associated parties can not / will not be held responsible if you attempt the process posted and cause physical harm to yourself, your surroundings or your property. Please keep this in mind.

Recabling the Phiaton MS 400 Headphones

There are just some things out there that men inherently love: power tools, fast cars, beautiful women, and carbon fiber. Carbon fiber is one of the most desirable looking materials on the planet, with it's crossweave of woven carbon nanotubes that can be used to build a Formula 1 race car, aerospace technology, or... a headphone.

The BMW Hommage clad in carbon panels

Yes the use of light weight, ultra-strong carbon fiber doesn't really serve some sort of utilitarian purpose on a headphone, but it sure looks awesome. Headphones have become of a bit of a fashion statement in the past few years, with Beats by Dre, House of Marley, Skullcandy and more recently Prada. Nowadays you get to pay for a name, fancy looks, and maybe if you're lucky, more than a couple of bucks went toward making it sound good. One can really only tell on a case-by-case basis and reading the reviews. But I digress; that's a tangent I'd rather not tackle at the moment.

Prada Headphones

Phiaton is a company that seems to straddle the line between style and good sound, making use of exotic materials like leather, burnished aluminum and, wait for it... carbon fiber! They surfaced only a few years ago  (2008) in the headphone arena and offer nearly a dozen product options, many of which are designed for portable use. Perhaps this is so people can see your good taste as you strut by.

As all headphones that eventually make their way into my clutches, these would be taken apart and recabled. The Phiaton MS 400 is here for this purpose. Stock, the headphones sound pretty decent for the price. The overall sound is warm and full. Bass could stand to go lower and be a bit more controlled, and the highs are slightly rolled off. This may sound negative, but overall I'd say the headphone has very good sound quality compared to other closed portable headphones. We'll see if a recable can help at all.

The stock Phiaton MS 400 headphone

Initially, 23.5 gauge red and black Cardas internally litzed copper in Teflon is braided into a four foot cable.

Braided Cardas copper wire

Next, the wire is sleeved with 1/8" black nylon multifilament and terminated with a ViaBlue mini connector. If you'd like to know more about the connector and see the inside, check out my post on a custom mini to RCA with ViaBlue connectors.

Sleeved and prepped cable

Now, the headphone will be opened to accept the new cable. The pads slide off vertically, exposing four screws on each cup.

Headphones with pads removed

Once the driver baffles are unscrewed, they can be removed exposing the solder terminals.

Phiaton headphone interior

The plastic on the inside of the headphone is fairly flimsy and light and will bend to the touch. Some mass will be added using some Dynamat Xtreme. The foam behind the driver is removed and used as a template to cut out the Dynamat, this is placed directly on the bottom, then a strip is run around the driver cavity. 

Mass damping using Dynamat Xtreme

The foam is then placed above the Dynamat is the same place it was initially. 

Foam returned to driver cavity

At this point, the new cable is soldered to the drivers, a small zip tie added for strain relief, and the headphone sealed back up. All done!

Recabled MS 400 Headphone

Thanks very much for taking the time to read this post. If you'd like your headphones recabled with some excellent sounding wire, contact Zynsonix today. 

The Fine Print:

The above steps detailing the recabling of a headphone are for entertainment purposes only, and not to be performed under any circumstances. The owner of this blog and all associated parties can not / will not be held responsible if you attempt the process posted and cause physical harm to yourself, your surroundings or your property. Please keep this in mind.