My exploration of audio cables started in 2004 after I re-terminated damaged Cardas Golden Reference interconnects with Eichmann Bullet plugs. The repaired cable had greater resolution and less grain and glare. I attributed the improvement to the lower mass of the plug. All the metal in high-end RCA connectors is not needed to conduct the signal and, in fact, may be detrimental.
That experience led me to experiment with different low-mass cable designs.
My ICs use Cardas 33-awg tonearm wire woven into a 3/8" dia. polypropylene hollow-braid rope. The fused end of the rope forms a collar that secures the RCA plug.
My speaker cables use many of strands of 24-awg litz wire bunched together in a random fashion. Each litz strand is composed of 105 44-awg magnet wires. Each speaker driver has its own polypropylene-wrapped cable from the amp. The effective cable gauges are 9 (Low), 12 (Mid), 15 (High), and 18 (Sub).
My power cables are Belden 83704 wired as a star quad. A 12-awg ground wire is spiraled around the outside.
My digital cable is a twisted-pair stripped from a cat-5 network cable.
Looks kinda tricky to weave like that. Why not just some cotton tubing?
I think the rhodium plating isn't good on stuff personally. Silver/gold OK, but rhodium doesn't sound right to me.
It would be nice if there were more low mass options!
What rhodium plating?
Cardas, Furutech, lots of them use it.
Rhodium takes a lot of break in and has a sound kind of like a loudness button - extended top and tight extended bottom which produces a slightly recessed middle.Great if your system is overly warm and needs a little brightening up and more slam.