# Coaxial Cable?



## donpisto (Jul 26, 2006)

I just bought some stuff from Tara Labs, a 4m optical cable and 30 solderless RCA ends. I had wires I was going to use for these, but I guess they will not work since the wires I had were for RCA ends that needed to be soldered. So, I'm just wondering where is a good place to buy some good coaxial wire. I probably will buy a 50 ft. length. Here are pics of the stuff I got from them for you guys to enjoy


----------



## Megalomaniac (Feb 12, 2007)

http://www.markertek.com/


----------



## sr20det510 (May 20, 2007)

How about the Eichmann cable that is available over on ECA?
http://forum.elitecaraudio.com/showthread.php?threadid=137225

Here is a link to the Eichmann website
http://www.eti-research.com.au/aboutus.htm


----------



## MerlinWerks (Feb 4, 2008)

I've made many cables with this cable here, very nice quality.


----------



## Electrodynamic (Nov 27, 2007)

Nice Optical and RCA ends.  I've got thier Spectrum 3A's in my Civic and I run the Omni 16 awg in both my home and car stereos. A buddy of mine just bought the Prism 300a's and I gotta admit they are NICE cables for the money. Kinda wish I would have purchased those instead to be honest with you because the 3A's are a b!tch to run under carpet and behind a HU.


----------



## donpisto (Jul 26, 2006)

Thanks for the links guys, I really appreciate it. I found some spare coaxial cable at home and i used it to test it out. It's 20 awg, quite thin, about .25" for the outer diameter, so there was a gap once the screw pressed one end towards the wall of the rca end. Here's a picture.










I used some heat shrink and one layer of electrical tape and it helped alot, kept it secure. Unfortunately, the cable did not work. Could be because of a couple reasons. I was supplied a couple links yesterady via AIM message by megalomaniac, but unfortunately I'm at work right now and can't find them.

For some reason I find using solderless to be a big more difficult since the center conductor on the coaxial cable must touch the center pin on the RCA end, while still making contact once the screw pushes the wire to the outer portion of the rca end (on the inside). I'm not sure if I need to go from 20 awg to 18 or 16 awg, or if there is something else that is wrong, like user error


----------



## Megalomaniac (Feb 12, 2007)

looks like you didnt strip it down to the braided shield for the ground inside...could be just the angle im looking at.


----------



## donpisto (Jul 26, 2006)

Yeah, I think that is where I messed up. I did it down to the foil and didn't realize it was the braided shield that needs to be connected. A co worker of mine gave me that suggestion about 10 mins before you mentioned that. So noobish, lol. We'll see how it goes today when i get home.


----------



## chad (Jun 30, 2005)

On a solderless connector, how does the center conductor attach? Juss Wonderin.....


----------



## Megalomaniac (Feb 12, 2007)

chad said:


> On a solderless connector, how does the center conductor attach? Juss Wonderin.....


there is a small grove inside that it barely slides into. when it reaches end you should hear a small "clink".

then further away around it is another conductor just for the ground/neg that it gets screwed down to.


i advised that if its still wiggling around then heatshrink the cable and over the connector.
so it looks like this

















http://www.whatisrazar.com/interconnectcables.html


or take it a step further and use that cylender shaped spacer crimp too.
http://www.whatisrazar.com/images/interconnectcables11.jpg


----------



## donpisto (Jul 26, 2006)

I'm a tad confused. Maybe the center conductor of the cable is not going into the right place. I thought it would touch the center pin on the rca end. Does it? Or does it go in between where I have located in the 2nd picture?

And the braided portion on the coaxial, that just connects to the screw on the rca end?


----------



## Megalomaniac (Feb 12, 2007)

no the center groove is for center conductor and the thing you showed in red should touch the shield if im not mistaken
tara labs didnt send you a small instruction book(or do they not have one)?


----------



## donpisto (Jul 26, 2006)

No they didn't send anything 

The center pin from the RCA end and center pin from the coaxial cable, do they meet like this? --><---

or would they overlap, and would i use the insulation to keep it in place?


----------



## Megalomaniac (Feb 12, 2007)

i wouldnt think so, cause if you look at that previous link. he did this


----------



## chad (Jun 30, 2005)

Did not catch this but.... why not just buy a solder type connector?


----------



## thylantyr (Jan 21, 2008)

*Belden 1694A Crimp RCA Cable*


----------



## donpisto (Jul 26, 2006)

chad said:


> Did not catch this but.... why not just buy a solder type connector?


I had some but I didn't like them. They were very cheap looking. I thought this solderless business would be much easier, apparently not. I guess I was misinformed. I figured all you do is screw it in voila, it's ready. I don't want to switch to ones that need to be soldered, ulness someone wants to buy the 30 solderless ends I just bought. I'll try it out again when I get home. So hopefully will have results in a few hours.


----------



## thylantyr (Jan 21, 2008)

When it involves crimping you need to size up all the variables; wire, connector, and crimper die. Even when I bought the proper die for Belden 1694A, it still requires some improvisation.

Belden 1694A is only really needed for high speed circuits,
perhaps you are rewiring your home cable system or you
are running digital signals, but for simple analog interconnects you don't need this. 
I use Beldon 8760 cable -> http://home.pacbell.net/lordpk/cables/Belden_8760_Cable/

http://www.createforum.com/petereuro/viewtopic.php?t=207&mforum=petereuro


----------



## Megalomaniac (Feb 12, 2007)

thylantyr said:


> *Belden 1694A Crimp RCA Cable*



any difference you brought the braid down then to leave it up and just slide it in?


----------



## donpisto (Jul 26, 2006)

Megalomaniac said:


> i wouldnt think so, cause if you look at that previous link. he did this


Maybe it it's just me, but it looks like he added something on the center conductor (in the picture you showed).


----------



## thylantyr (Jan 21, 2008)

> any difference you brought the braid down then to leave it up and just slide it in?


What does any difference mean ? lol

I rewired my whole house cable system with this cable
and methodology. Home cable TV is typically daisy chained
from one room to another and the signal loss is horrible
as you go down the chain, the picture quality gets snowy.

A better way to wire up the home is to have the incoming
cable signal feed a distribution amplifier in a 'star method'
and each room has it's own cable to the amplifier. I did this
install and the picture quality is great, no more lame problems with the other method the cable guys do.

If the picture quality is excellent, then there is no audio
issues if you wanted to use it for audio interconnects.


----------



## Megalomaniac (Feb 12, 2007)

thylantyr said:


> What does any difference mean ? lol
> 
> I rewired my whole house cable system with this cable
> and methodology. Home cable TV is typically daisy chained
> ...


i mean i noticed you brought the braiding down and then slid the cable into the interconnect the placed the metal cylinder around it and then slid that in after. Did you do that because its hard to slide the cable in with the braid?

cause i thought on those crimpless cables you strip it down where you see 3 different cuts and slide it in the connector and just secure the cable, no need to mess with the shield since everything is "set"

like this guy:


----------



## thylantyr (Jan 21, 2008)

I probably tried both ways and just chose the way I liked it, the end result is the same. For me, the biggest issue
is not having the cable come off when yanking  
Whatever gives you a stronger cable.



Megalomaniac said:


> i mean i noticed you brought the braiding down and then slid the cable into the interconnect the placed the metal cylinder around it and then slid that in after. Did you do that because its hard to slide the cable in with the braid?
> 
> cause i thought on those crimpless cables you strip it down where you see 3 different cuts and slide it in the connector and just secure the cable, no need to mess with the shield since everything is "set"
> 
> like this guy:


----------



## donpisto (Jul 26, 2006)

Well, I still haven't gotten it to work. I'm hungry and need to see about getting my 18 in my trunk for possibly an IB setup. I'm stumped


----------



## Megalomaniac (Feb 12, 2007)

donpisto said:


> Well, I still haven't gotten it to work. I'm hungry and need to see about getting my 18 in my trunk for possibly an IB setup. I'm stumped



maybe your cable is broken somewhere along the line...


or you simply FAIL  


seriously though im sure you'll figure it out


----------



## donpisto (Jul 26, 2006)

I really don't know at this point. I went to home depot and I'm using 18 awg and it fits much better too sine the outer diameter. Am I supposed to put something on the center conductor of the wire and then slide it into the rca end?


----------



## donpisto (Jul 26, 2006)

Well, I still couldn't figure it out, and searched the Tara Labs website. Found out I needed their Prism 100a wire, and coincidentally there is a dealer 6 miles from my house. I called them up and they didn't have the wire but said they might have something that would work. They pulled out two wires, the first didn't work, the second did, which was the Prism 200a I believe. I bought 2 ft worth and that's all I'm ever going to buy, because it was $3 per foot! . In the end, it was BARELY enough. Here are the steps I took and a tutorial. I know one has been done for RCA's that require soldering, and I'm not sure how many people would buy some that are solderless, but thought I'd share in case everyone does a search..

Wire by itself, 12" long...cut whatever length you would need.










Cut a short amount, I did about 0.25"










You will end up with something like this:










Pull back the braided wire










Simply put the connector over the wire and push down










Screw in the darn screw 










If you were to pull it out (after unscrewing), you will see the hole...this hole is where the screw goes through the braided wire, but does not touch the center conductor, thus the ground.










If you look closely, there is a hole by the center conductor, that is where the pin on the RCA end went through. Since choosing the wire size is crucial, the conductor will touch the pin on the RCA and that is the positive.










Here are two pics of what it looks like finished.



















Then do the same thing to the other end.










Now make another one so you have a left and right










Pic of them together:










Now, when I was taking one of the ends off, I realized this



















What does it mean? There is NO need to make ANY cuts EXCEPT for the length of the wire you need. How much SIMPLER can this get?! And all this time I was pulling hairs get frustrated....frustrated to the point where I wanted to through something like the time when I couldn't right click, then found out I was using a MAC and not a PC  Go figure.

So, I decided to make them look purrty. All I had is blue heat shrink in 3/8" size, so I put it just under where the screw would go in fro the RCA end.



















Next, I heated them. Make sure you leave enough room so you can move each wire around so it would be easier to plug in. I did about 3.5 or 4 inches, but I recommend a tad more. 5" is what I would recommend to be honest.












Both ends and wires:










Now for the tech flex




























Then I put a little bit more of heat shrink around the tech flex to cover it. I used 3/4" for this. Make sure to cut out the length you need first.



















Completed RCA's














































Installed on the amp. As I mentioned, I would really recommend putting the tech flex and heat shrink at least 5" from the tips, because I had a bit of a difficult time getting them in.




























Some notes:
You must make sure the wire will have little to no gap when putting in the RCA. If there is quite a gap, the center conductor on the wire will not be touching the center pin on the RCA and you will not have a functioning RCA. Also, remember, at least 5" from the tip is where the heat shrink to begin/end, however you see it. This is to make it easier when you plug them in.

Alas, I can relax.

Now, as for costs. I highly DO NOT recommend the way I went because of the cost. I bought these solderless ends from Tara Labs because they were nice and I really like them. They cost $4.50 per RCA end. I ended up getting a little discount sine I got 30 of them along with a 4 meter optical cable.

The wire itself is a hefty price as well. $3 per foot. I am going to find something else that will work just as well. As long as the outer diameter is the same size, I will be fine. I wouldn't mind paying $3 per foot if money was not an issue and if I didn't need a long length. All my amps (five of them), will be next to the processor and four of them will be daisy chained so I will need some VERY short lengths. Max length I'll have is 1.5 - 2 ft.with some as small as under 6". I will need a 15 ft. length that goes from this unit I bought for my Blackbird connected to the dock to make it work by having audio since I have the processor. It will go directly from that unit in the glove compartment to the processor, so I would need about 40 - 50 ft and I'm not going to spend near $200 on wire. I'm sure I can find 50 ft. of wire for under $50.

My suggestion, if you want something easy when making your own wires and don't want to solder, get some solderless RCA ends that you like, and some good wire, not something that has an RG6 jacket since it is not flexible, but something like an RG59 jacket. I will be ordering the wire soon and see how it goes. I'll then state which wire I went with. This is really beyond easy and IMO, nicer than store bought RCA's. And then, you can tell people you made your own RCA's and more than likely, people will be shocked and amazed, yet they won't know the simplicity to it .


----------



## donpisto (Jul 26, 2006)

Double Post FTL


----------



## Megalomaniac (Feb 12, 2007)

werds of BORAT

"Verry Niice!!"


----------



## donpisto (Jul 26, 2006)

Words of Borat

"You Liiiike? I Liiike!"


----------



## donpisto (Jul 26, 2006)

Ordered 50 feet of blue Canare coaxial cable from www.performanceaudio.com at $0.78 a foot, sure beats Tara Labs' $3 per foot. Here are some pics of it and a test fit on one of the RCA ends. It fits in snugly, better than the Tara Labs wire and I don't need to use heat shrink either. Plus the blue matches the PDX blue even better than the heat shrink . It's also quite flexible.


----------

