New DIY IC's

Dingus and I put together a set of IC's thanks to Tape Heads I got my cassette deck out and needed another set of IC's.

I am going to break them in and see how they sound compared to the Grant Fidelity and PBJ IC's, I would be surprised if they sound better than the GF's. but who knows.

right now they are a little forward, almost bright, but I believe that is because they are brand new. here is a photo.

I believe the wire itself is canare speaker wire. Dingus can chime in with the brand of plugs that we used.

Investement price, just under $10. now that is in my budget.

elroy

This post has been edited by Elroy on October 10, 2008 09:16 am

Attached Image (Click thumbnail to expand)

actually Mike Gibson gave me the idea of using the Canare Starquad s411 wire for IC's. the plugs are Neutrik at 93 cents a pop.

I have run the new ic's for about 60hrs now and now ........... well they cant hold a candle to the grant fidelity cables that I already broke in. the mids and highs were pretty clear and precise, but a little forward. but the low mids and high part of the low end was almost non-existent on anything that was analog from the 1990 and earlier.

If I threw on something from 1999, or something that was re-mastered it sounded pretty good through the whole spectrum, but when I put on anything that was 70's-80's normal pop, jazz, blues or anything it seem thin in the lows.

so today I swapped the GF's back in the system and the 80's stuff I am very familiar with sounded fantastic.

My dIY IC's might be good if I had a boomy low. but I dont.

elroy

ps. but I did a good job on them and they look pretty nice. that has to account for something. and that was a first for me doing something like that also.

This post has been edited by Elroy on October 20, 2008 06:53 pm

Tanx for sharing, they sure look great.
The result could be different with another setup with a better synergy...did you tried it with a TT? I have a cable which sounds great with my TT and not so well with my cdp...

Thats what I was thinking clint. maybe on another setup, or garage/office system they might sound dynamite. I didnt toss them or anything stupid, goin to still fool with them.

thats a good idea with the turntable, but do I need to figure out how to ground it? my cables from the tt, have a grounding wire?
elroy

This post has been edited by Elroy on October 26, 2008 09:02 pm

The ground wire should be fairly simple to splice in a wire or seperate it from the current IC's.

Great looking cables!

Jim

Well, at the price you're talkin', maybe I'd be in for a couple of sets, I'm getting my main rig back in service soon, get back to me on this, K?

Craig

I guess I should add, that with four systems in the house, with separates for amplification and various sources, I bet I could find some synergy somewhere with some of those, would be a good test for others with similair componets.

Look great and a nice price too!

I shipped them off to Stuwee, for a demo and if he can find some synergy with one of his systems then they are his, if not I hope he can send them off to someone else who can try.

elroy

Todd, I just got them! This should be a blast. And I'll add very nice workmanship on them. i'll be posting my thoughts and on what components used very soon.

Craig

do your magic, and hopefully they work in one of your systems.

elroy

it was shake-n-bake, and i helped!

Have you had a chance to plug them in to any of your systems yet?

Here's a quick report from using them in system #2 between the Yamaha and the Kenwood, they're just a tad brighter than the Rat Shack IC's the AR's are considered to be rolled off in the highs, so that's a welcome improvement

the interesting thing is the lows, again the little AR's aren't subs, but ol' Roy Allison sure knew how to get some bass out of a slightly larger than a shoebox speaker! I got lot's of serious bass compared to the Rat Shack's, in fact, the whole sonic picture opened up nicely, the Moog synth on Heart's "Song of the Archer" was vibrating the thick adobe walls in this big old house, I felt it in another room. One of the clocks in the bathroom came off the peg. That had not happened before This is from an LP to metal cassette recording played on a mid-line Luxman deck.

So I tried the IC's between the Luxman deck and the Yamaha, everything collasped sound wise mostly with the lows, they didn't disappear, the punch was gone...

When I just used one set between the Luxman and the Yamaha and the other from the Yamaha to the Kenwood (same channel) everything was extremely vibrant again, though hard to really say playing one channel of a stereo recording. I'll be moving the IC's into system #3 next, I have to wait to use the main rig as the woofer in one of the M-L's is brand new and needs to break in still. I can't wait for that test, the 'Logans are so reveiling in their own special way.

So, I'll say I got some good synergy/results, and I likey
Your humble test pilot,
Craig