Tape Project Forum

Tape Machines => Tape Project Machines => Topic started by: jcmusic on November 18, 2010, 08:29:16 PM

Title: What IC With Direct Head Out
Post by: jcmusic on November 18, 2010, 08:29:16 PM

What IC's are you guys using with your direct head wiring outputs???

Jay

Title: Re: What IC With Direct Head Out
Post by: High and Outside on November 18, 2010, 09:44:48 PM

Well, I am using custom made cables that I have been thinking about putting into production for sale. I'll let you know if I do.

Till then, I think the two characteristics you want to look for are low capacitance and good shielding. Good shielding means, to me, a combination of 100% foil shield and a high coverage braid shield.

Title: Re: What IC With Direct Head Out
Post by: jcmusic on November 18, 2010, 11:06:55 PM

Paul,
I have seen some cables that are made for audio/video with 100% shielding what do you think about them???

Jay

Title: Re: What IC With Direct Head Out
Post by: ironbut on November 18, 2010, 11:44:37 PM

I've been using phono cables for the most part. Silver Breeze from Silver Audio.  I've been really happy with it's performance with one exception. I haven't been able to afford a new one and nobody seems to want to sell one used so my vinyl set up has taken a hit.

I sure would like to check out Paul's new cable though. The grapevine says it should be pretty nice.

Title: Re: What IC With Direct Head Out
Post by: microstrip on November 25, 2010, 07:28:18 PM

Quote from: ironbut on November 18, 2010, 11:44:37 PM

I sure would like to check out Paul's new cable though. The grapevine says it should be pretty nice.

I am sure my A80 will deserve them! :-)

Currently I was considering van den Hul D501 - if it is good enough for SME tonearms and MC cartridges it should be good for tape heads.

Title: Re: What IC With Direct Head Out
Post by: docb on November 26, 2010, 11:20:51 AM

Yes the inductance of typical phono cartridges and typical tape heads is fairly similar and the requirement for short, low capacitance cables with very good shielding is the same.

Title: Re: What IC With Direct Head Out
Post by: ironbut on November 26, 2010, 12:39:44 PM

Hey Francisco,
At one point I thought about trying VDH D501 but never got around to it. IRCC, that's what Manley used in the wiring of their head preamp.

Title: Re: What IC With Direct Head Out
Post by: microstrip on November 26, 2010, 04:11:29 PM

Thanks for your opinions. The following was taken from from the van den Hul datasheet:

>To support the tone-arm and mixing console industry, this mat black HULLIFLEX ? 3 jacketed balanced cable was
designed: very flexible and with extremely good electrical qualities.
The D - 501 HYBRID is a cable with a very high shielding factor.
Sonically this is one of the best cables in our program. Not really expensive and with a very high performance quality.
The D - 501 HYBRID is regularly used as a microphone cable in critical professional recordings and as a standard
product for e.g. SME in England together with the prestigious Type V tonearm. This already since 1987.
The 2 signal lines are made each of 19 x 0.1 mm. very high grade OFC wires with the highest density of very pure silver
coating.
As an extra layer around the metal group, we use a Linear Structured Carbon ? (LSC) saturated coating.
The signal line insulation with the colours white and yellow is made of cell-PE, so the stripping can even be done with
your fingernails to prevent wire damage on the silver coated copper strands commonly caused by mechanical stripping.
The resistance per signal lead is: 11.3 Ohm/100 meter.
The capacitance between the 2 signal leads is: 75 pF/meter.
Very flexible specially treated artificial fibres are used as a filler to prevent any harm caused by external humidity or
chemicals.
The shielding consists of 96 x 0.10 mm. wires of a high grade Matched Crystal (MC) OFC with a dense and very pure
silver coating and a LSC saturated helical tape.
The resistance of the shielding is: 2.3 Ohm/100 meter