DIY DC power cables

[JBL]

Made several starquad DC power cords for my Farad Super3 LPS's.  Used VH Audio 18awg solid core OCC wire with Airlok, Oyaide 2.5mm plugs, OEM Japanese GX16-4 plugs, and Cardas Eutectic solder. 

 

New cables sound amazing.  Bigger, deeper soundstage, increased dynamics, deeper bass, increased detail,and smoother tonal balance across the frequency range.  Percussions sound incredible now.  Tons of attack and dynamics. 

 

Made a couple more for a friend who also uses a couple of Farad's in his system.  Same results and then some.  Made XLR version for his Audiophool modded Meraki switch and matching power supply.  Transparency of sound and microdetails also improved significantly to where even his wife noticed the difference easily.

 

During the process of making the cables, I came up with a simple jig for twisting the cables. I took a 2"x2" piece of delrin I had laying around and drill 4 holes about 1" apart.  Countersunk the holes so the wire insulation wouldn't catch the edge of the holes.  Using the jig made twisting the solid core wire 10x easier.  Probably not an issue with stranded wire but twisting the solid core wire by hand was quite difficult.

 

Stock power cord from Farad is a 4x22awg tinned copper in starquad with braided and PE insulation. 

 

Since the stock cord was already starquad and shielded, my guess is that using a heavier gauge solid core OCC wire in a teflon jacket is what yielded the improvement.  YMMV.

 

 

 

[JBL]

Hi John,

 

Could there be any advantage to using multiple runs of smaller gauge and doing a double starquad geometry?  I.e. 4x24awg of the VH Audio solid core wire into starquad.  Then take 4 of those 4x24awg and put into another starquad.  Combined wire gauge remains the same vs 4x18awg so would doubling up on the starquad offer any additional benefits?

 

 

JBL

[JBL]

Given how much better my system sounded with the DIY starquad DC power cords and John's earlier comments about proper vs improper shield implementation got me to wondering about my expensive custom made XLR splitters from a somewhat well known audio cable company. 

 

Long story short, I made starquad XLR splitters with the same VH Audio solid core OCC wire in 21awg.  Put them in place of the custom fancy schmancy XLR splitter I had bought.  Result-no more HF noise that had been present in my system since I put in the custom XLR splitters.  Sound got smoother, more detailed, more dynamic, blacker background, and better bass.  

 

I took apart the custom made XLR.  It was made with a twisted pair of stranded copper 22awg PE insulation with mediocre braided copper shield.  I am guessing the shield was not properly implemented and with low quality twister pair stranded wire the XLR splitter acted like an antenna, add in some skin effect from the cheap stranded wire and you get all kinds of crap added to your music.  

 

 

[JBL]

@cpasmoiYep, the VH Audio wire is awesome stuff.

 

@kostas6a3Do a search for JSSG360.  John Swenson explains how to implement the shield correctly for starquad.  However, using just starquad on its own provides significant noise reduction.

[JBL]

@kostas6a3If you can find teflon jacketed solid core OCC wire locally I think it is a worthwhile expense.  I built a starquad DC power cord using some Canare 4S6 which is similar to the Gotham wire.  The teflon OCC wire outperformed it by a large margin.  Not even close. 

 

 

[JBL]

For anyone who has made it this far into the thread here are a few more tweaks to try with the DC starquad power cord.

 

Solid silver wires in teflon tubes.  Provided a more resolved sound with better PRAT over OCC copper.

 

Wrapping  the cord with a couple layers of heavy duty teflon tape, then wrapping silicone tape on top of it.  Enhanced microdetails, bigger, deeper soundstage and improved dynamics.  When wrapping the cable make sure to make it nice and tight.  The purpose being to maintain the geometry of the wire and also minimize any vibrations.

 

The yellow covering is the teflon tape.  The red covering is the silicone tape.

 

[JBL]

If you live in the US then Home Depot will have it.  Otherwise you can order from Amazon.

 

https://www.amazon.com/D-N-Industrial-Plumbers-Density-Fittings/dp/B08S5XQ9NQ/ref=sr_1_2?crid=CO2Y0DHGF6V1&keywords=ptfe%2Btape%2Bgas&qid=1658195025&sprefix=ptfe%2Btape%2Bgas%2Caps%2C145&sr=8-2&th=1

 

https://www.amazon.com/XFasten-Silicone-Fusing-1-Inch-36-Foot/dp/B01MY0DO3B/ref=sxts_rp_s_1_0?content-id=amzn1.sym.14b5a3ec-ddf3-42f1-bf1e-8515f8d25a34%3Aamzn1.sym.14b5a3ec-ddf3-42f1-bf1e-8515f8d25a34&crid=5AJJDW1LLJW1&cv_ct_cx=silicon%2Btape&keywords=silicon%2Btape&pd_rd_i=B01N7KC62D&pd_rd_r=3b40929a-5401-4e33-9462-2afd682ff015&pd_rd_w=W1fx5&pd_rd_wg=u3PJS&pf_rd_p=14b5a3ec-ddf3-42f1-bf1e-8515f8d25a34&pf_rd_r=QP0G6W9P1F9KPKG4P6ZW&qid=1658195078&sprefix=silicon%2Btape%2Caps%2C133&sr=1-1-f0029781-b79b-4b60-9cb0-eeda4dea34d6&th=1

[JBL]

Went to a fellow audiophiles house and did a more extensive AB comparison of my DC starquad VH Audio 18awg OCC copper with foamed teflon against the 18awg solid silver in teflon tubes.  DC cables were used between a Farad Super3 to the modem.

 

After going back and forth about 5 times, we both agreed the solid silver with teflon tubes was the better sounding of the two.  The silver provided a much blacker background from which the music emerged.  Notes had much longer decay times.  Smoother sounding.  Better dynamics and microdetails.  A more resolved presentation of the music with better separation between instruments and vocals. 

 

Next up is to cryo treat the cables and see if that can improve the sound even more. 

 

Silver wire was sourced from an ebay seller out of Croatia. 

[JBL]

Yep.  Just did that.  Solid silver tubes crimped on the wire side and slide perfect fit on GX16 side.  Not recommended unless you know how to check for polarity and make 100% sure you are correct otherwise will blow up your gear.  Try at your own risk.

 

On the plus side-much better sounding than the GX16-4 plug.  A bigger more dynamics sound and soundstage.  Improved bass output and low level detail.  Solid silver tubing FTW!

 

Silver tubing is from Rio Grande-3.56mm OD x .51mm wall 5N grade dead soft.  Also polished the silver first with Simichrome to remove any oxidation.

 

 

[JBL]

Polarity looking at the back of  the Super3 GX16-4 plug.  Top left is positive, top right is negative, bottom left is negative and bottom right is positive.  I would highly recommend using a multimeter to verify the polarity before plugging your device in just to be 100% certain.

 

I did compare a 2 wire Mundorf silver/gold 15.5awg to a starquad pure silver 18awg.  The Mundorf sounded somewhat soft and lacked detail and dynamics compared to the pure silver starquad.  The 15.5awg was also too stiff and the teflon insulation tape too thin and fragile to do a starquad twist.   Another forum member in this thread had mentioned liking the 2 wire Mundorf better than the starquad as well so I opted to make the 2 wire version for testing and comparing.

 

The solid silver starquad with silver tubing plugs and double wrapped with teflon and silicone tape has so far been the best sounding of all the cables I have made and tried.  One of my audio friends who did the comparisons with me came to the same conclusions.  When we compared the OCC copper version to the solid silver, it was a significant difference.  A much bigger soundstage, smoother frequency response, and more detailed but without the brightness normally associated with silver. 

[JBL]

I thought the sound of the starquad as full bodied as the two wire 15.5awg Mundorf.  The combined wire gauge of the starquad is 16awg/side since you are using two 18awg wires on each side so the difference is negligibile.

 

I used the 3.56mm heavy walled soft .999 pure tubing.  I would highly recommend covering the tubes with heat shrink as I did in the pictures so that you don't accidentally cause a short. 

 

https://www.riogrande.com/product/.999-fine-silver-5.61mm-heavy-wall-tubing-soft-12-length/100832GP/?code=100832

[JBL]

@Nick90  If you are planning to crimp the silver tubing to the wire like I did, you will need some crimpers like these. 

 

https://www.amazon.com/Channellock-909-Crimping-Tool-Cutter/dp/B00004SBDI/ref=sr_1_1?crid=B0X1N25QPT69&keywords=channellock+crimper&qid=1660612889&sprefix=channel+lock+crimper%2Caps%2C142&sr=8-1

 

Also metal tube cutter and reamer to cut the tubing and remove the burr from the tube.

 

https://www.amazon.com/Libraton-Tubing-Deburring-Aluminum-Stainless/dp/B09J2JY1Q6/ref=sr_1_5?crid=15R3J2ACOKLJ&keywords=copper+cutter&qid=1660612912&sprefix=copper+cutt%2Caps%2C150&sr=8-5

 

https://www.amazon.com/AFA-Tooling-Deburring-High-Speed-Countersink/dp/B08DCMJNWY/ref=sr_1_9?keywords=deburring%2Btool&qid=1660613559&sprefix=deburring%2Caps%2C186&sr=8-9&th=1

[JBL]

Your welcome.  Let me know if have any other questions or issues during the build. 

 

Would be great to hear how this version works out for you. 

[JBL]

My latest modification to the DIY DC starquad cable was to cover the entire cable with heat shrink tube.  My hypothesis behind this is that the heat shrink tubing will further minimize changes in wire geometry when bending the cable and further reduce any vibrations of the cable itself.

 

Initial impressions with this latest change is little more clarity and detail.  For a few dollars worth of heat shrink tubing, I would say worth the effort.

[JBL]

I recently added a JCAT USB XE card to my DIY music server.  I am powering it with a Farad Super3.  Initially I used a Farad Level 2 silver DC cable because I had one laying around and did not have an extra DIY starquad solid core 18awg silver DC cable.  Finally got around to making one tonight and replaced the Farad silver DC cable. 

 

Sound quality took a huge jump up.  Dynamics got better, soundstage larger and deeper, more microdetails, and a blacker background. 

 

Another win for the DIY starquad!

 

In case anyone is wondering, the Farad Level 2 silver DC cable is 4x2 strands of 26awg silver wire.  Insulation is unknown and wire geometry is unknown.  Termination is 2.1mm Oyaide to GX16-4.

 

My version of the DIY starquad, if you haven't read the entire thread is 4x18awg solid core silver wire in teflon tubing twisted in starquad geometry with silver tubing plugs for the power supply side and Oyaide 2.1mm plug for the USB card side.  After twisting the wire I cover the entire cable with heatshrink.  I no longer use teflon tape or silicon tape as previously as they are redundant since the heat shrink tubing does a great job of maintain the wire geometry from end to end. 

[JBL]

If you are using the Oyaide 2.1 plugs, I found putting the wires in parallel for the center(+) conductor worked best.  For the negative side I soldered one wire onto each of the tabs.  

[JBL]

I have not tried the JSSG but I think John Swenson mentions somewhere in the thread that the starquad geometry is what provides the majority of the noise reduction effects. 

 

 

[JBL]

@Nick90The twist looks sufficient to me.  That is about the amount of twist my cables have.  Just make sure you use the two opposing wires together as indicated in the image posted by @R1200CL.

 

Some heat shrink tubing over the entire length of the wire will also help keep the wire geometry stable and prevent the wires from unwinding.