Interconnects: any particular cable suit bullet plugs?

maddog 2

maddog 2

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I've made up a few DIY i/cs including one with silver Shark cable and one with some offcuts of MF Nuvista cable, both using locking phono plugs.

Anyway, I fancy trying some bullet plugs in my system so I was thinking I could either re-terminate some of my existing i/cs or try something new.

Has anyone experimented with cable and bullets? I've heard microphone cable mentioned before...
 
anyone got an opinion on these http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=295&item=5754586000&rd=1

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look quite good. As bullets go for about £25 it works out about £15 for labour, the cable and postage which sounds pretty reasonable to me
 
Rap with a capital C...... You don't want nasty braided copper screen return
[if its the cable I'm familair with]
Tried it, the shark solid silver is better [maplins] but solid core silver in a teflon sleeve [twited pair] is very hard to beat. At about the same price.
look to the missing link for bullets at £22

Pm me for the recipe
 
I bought a set of Bullets from Robert. Lowest price I could find anywhere in the UK. He throws in some silver solder. Enough to make several sets! I found him knowledgeable and helpful with some questions on cables.

Those Van Damme cables that use have a good reputation in the Pro Audio world. Used by top recording studios and broadcasting companies such as BBC, ITV, CNN, etc.

These small cable suppliers offer excellent value and service compared to the likes of Russ Andrews
 
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zanash said:
look to the missing link for bullets at £22
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If it was me I'd pay the extra £6 and get the metal bodied versions (£28 for 4); they at least seem more rugged. The missing link are good to deal with though; I've bought a couple of sets through them and they've arrived nice and quickly.

When those NuVista cables were going cheap a while back, I seem to remember a few people reterminating them with bullets, and the results were generally thought rather positive IIRC. Might be worth a go, depending on what you think of the cable at the minute? The thing with the bullets though is I really don't think I'd want to try and re-use a set, although I suppose it could be done.
 
are any of your i/cs bulleted Martin?

It's a toss up between some (new) Shark cable and some leftover Nuvista cable then.

Where can I have a look at the solid core silver cable you mention zanash? Does Maplin et al stock it?
 
T-bone Sanchez said:
This where I get my wire from:
http://www.wires.co.uk/acatalog/si_wire.html
I use that along with teflon sleeving from RS and plait it together and finish it off with some nice braided cable sleeve and away you go.

Ive used bullets and they are good but Ive found very little difference between various plugs. Net Audio do a nice plug BTW.
Click to expand...
What is the part no for Teflon sleeving from RS?
What is the correct dia silver wire to use for analogue and 5V digital interconnects when three are plaited? I have heard that using diffrent dia cores help. Has anyone tried?
 
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If you need some silver wire Pm me....I need to order some anyway.

0.5mm 4n silver wire is about £3.00/m, for a 0.5m ic you will need 2m so thats £6.00 plus ptfe sleeve at £3 /5m length [only comes in 5m lengths] A few bits of heat shrink,solder, p/p and the recipe card ....if you have the bullets call it £15.00 total
 
If you use the eichmann formula you get very nearly 1mm for the ground and 0.5mm for the signal. This sound very good [I used silver [4n] ] Just about the best IC I've made, used bullet as well. The Neutric 50p RCA are all so very very good for the cost.

The RS code 399 881[?] but for 0.5mm wire I use the 0.8 mm ID sleeve, 1mm I use the 399 833 1.3mm ID.

Hope that helps
 
maddog 2 said:
are any of your i/cs bulleted Martin?
Click to expand...
Yes. First I made up a 5m stereo IC for my sub, which I put bullets on. I wanted to try them on something less critical before thinking about reterminating anything else. After all the negative comments about their construction and how difficult they can be to use I was rather pleasantly surprised that I didn't have any trouble with them. That lead was a big improvement over the freebie style one I was using before, but in large part this was due to the better shielding of the starquad mic cable I used.

I've also now reterminated my main IC (DAC-pre) with silver bullets. They needed reterminating anyway as the existing plugs had shorter than average central pins and only just made the connection at the DAC end. Moving the lead slightly could make it cut out! The bullets are an improvement, but as the connection wasn't the best to start with I wouldn't want to say too much. Also, the trouble with reterminating is you're relying on long term memory to judge differences so it's not easy. In large part I've gone over to them based on the opinions of others I trust.

I haven't bulleted my pre-power IC since as you'll know the Audiolab sockets aren't the most robust so I'm a little reticent in case I damage them. I may yet do it though...

As T-bone said if you try bullets you do want to solder them quickly, and like with any plug I'd have it in a phono socket whilst doing the soldering. I use a cheap socket from Maplin that I've mounted on an RA oak cone box!
 
Thanks Zanash and Sanchez.
I will take it up if I find the Monarchy DIP I am looking for.

I made two sets of I/Cs using bullets. Read tips at their website before and had no problems. I inserted the bullet into an inline socket to hold the delicate parts together. Inline socket also act as a heatsink. Then held the inline socket in a mole grip. Laid the cable cores to the connectors making sure that they are touching and making contact. Added some weight to the cable to hold it that way. Then applied soldering iron to the cable and ran a tiny bit of silver solder just enough to secure the cable.
 

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