Home Grown Custom Made RCA Interconnects: Van den Hul M.C. D102, MK III Cables.

Made another home grown custom cable today, using the Van den Hul M.C. D102, Mk III Hybrid (Halogen free) cable and some very nice old NBS gold plated RCA plugs I had. A pair of 1M length interconnects were made up. The Van den Hul cable is said to be constructed in a pseudo-balanced configuration, mixing carbon fibre with more conventional silver-plated copper and with HULLIFLEX jacket for insulation. The pitch is that this cable has capacitance, dielectric loss and microphony all on low side and thus said to ensure that the signal remains pure and unpolluted giving a natural and musical feel. I much prefer the NBS RCA plugs to the originals.

I bought the cable from a Van den Hul cable stockist and went home and soldered on the RCA's. Home grown custom made cables give equal performance at many times less the price paid for original made up cables from the manufacturer. Of course I used some high silver content solder for the connectors.

The 2 centre conductors are made of 40 dense and very pure silver coated strands made of a very high grade Matched Crystal (MC) OFC. The resistance of each centre conductor is 5.5 Ohm/100 meter. The capacitance between the 2 internal conductors is a very low 37 pF/meter, the overall losses and/or phase-shift remain very low. Yellow Hulliflex Jacket. Dual 99.999% Oxygen Free Copper - densely pure Silver Plated conductors - encased in VdH's patented Linear Structured Carbon (LSC) Layer. Helically wound screen with LSC Layer to provide maximum protection against interference. This extra layer of LSC highly improves the quality of the signal transmission by performing electrical bridging on micro-scale and by converting the external magnetic field close to the conductors into an electrical signal again.

The MC D102, Mk III have won numerous awards in the past including:

• What Hi-Fi 1998:Best Buy
• What Hi-Fi 1999:Product of the Year
  
• What Hi-Fi 2000:Best Buy
• British Audio & Hi-Fi News 2001:Best Interconnect
• What Hi-Fi 2001:Product of the Year
• Hi-Fi Choice 2002/2003:Product of the Year

Ok See the photos of my home grown custom made MC D102, Mk III below:


VdH Specs:

Cable Type:	Triple screened twin core (Balanced)
Conductor Material:	HYBRID: High purity dense Silver coated high purity Matched Crystal OFC + Linear Structured Carbon ® saturated layer(s)
Design Purpose/ Application Area(s):	Balanced and unbalanced audio interconnect
Eff. Conductor Ø/Eq. AWG No./Strands:	Cores: 0.31 mm² / Cores: ~AWG 22 / Cores: 40; Screen: 180
External Diameter / -Dimensions:	7.25 mm.
Resistance 20 °C / 68 °F:	Cores: 5.5 Ohm/100 m.; Screen: 0.62 Ohm/100 m.
Capacitance:	Core-core: 37 pF/m.
Characteristic Impedance:	~110 Ohm (in balanced configuration); Allows AES-EBU standard digital audio transmission
Insulation / Dielectric Strength / Test Voltage:	Cores: PE foam; Jacket: HULLIFLEX ® 4 / 300 Vrms min.
Connector Types Suitable:	Our RCA type C - 7.3 or Neutrik XLR; Custom mountable on ordered lengths.
Standard Sales Units / -Lengths:	100 m. reels; Stereo pair packed with RCA (unbalanced) or XLR (balanced) connectors in 0.6, 0.8, 1.0, 1.2 and 1.5 m. lengths; Six lead packed sets for AV applications with RCA (unbalanced) connectors in 0.6, 0.8, 1.0, 1.2 and 1.5 m. lengths; Other lengths: please consult your van den Hul dealer or the van den Hul distributor in your country.
Jacket Colours Available:	Yellow-orange