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Home Theater Forum and Systems - HomeTheaterShack.com > Home Theater - Audio / Video > Remotes | Cables | Accessories | Tweaks > How to Solder: An Illustrated DIY
Guide to Making Your Own Cables

How to Solder: An Illustrated DIY Guide to Making Your

Own Cables

Wrapping up a few odds and ends

Finishing up best noise reduction cables

If youre doing the best noise rejection method where one
of the center conductors is tied into the shield: When you
make up the other end of your cable, the conductor that you
tied into the shield will be soldered to the RCAs sleeve (i.e.
clamp arm). To clarify, the shield will be connected to one
end of the cable only. This will send the signal (-) solely
through the center conductor.

Have you seen those tweak DIY cables where they eschew
shielded cable for singular wires twisted together either by
hand or in an electric drill motor? In lieu of a shield, the
twisted center conductors are supposed to accomplish the
noise rejection. It works pretty well in most situations, but
theres no substitute for a good shield. Well, our best noise
rejection method will allow you to accomplish the same
twisted wiring as those tweak cables, since the dual center
conductors are internally twisted down the length of the
cable, while maintaining the shield. Win win.

The picture below shows what the prepd cable will look like
the blue conductor will go to the tip connection (solder
cup), the white one goes to the sleeve (arm assembly).

Please note, its impossible to completely clip off the strands

of the shield. Thats a problem, because if any part of the
shield makes contact with the connector, then the (-) signal
will be sent through the shield as well as the white conductor.
Personally Im not sure if that matters or not (I usually tie the
second center conductor to the shield on both ends), but if
you want to make sure the signal (-) is traveling only on the
center conductor, then the shield cannot make contact with
the connector on this end of the cable.

As you can see in the picture above, there is no shield visible

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at all. This is what we want. This can be accomplished by

first shearing the shield as close as possible with the Xcelite
170M cutters, then stretching the jacket of the cable over
whatever shield is left. This is done by gripping the cable a
few feet back from the end with one hand, and with the other
hand stroking the outer jacket from that point down to the
end of the cable. The end result is the jacket is stretched and
pulled down over the shield, covering and fully isolating it
from the connector, as the picture shows.

Also note - in my opinion this does not matter, but some

believe that the end with the shield connected to the RCA
should be used only on the source side, not destination side
(e.g. the pre amp, not the amplifier).

What about cable beautification?

Some people like to pretty-up their cables with techflex and
heat shrink, like Otto did in the picture below. Looks cool as
all get-out for sure, but personally I dont get it. No ones
going to see it behind your equipment rack, and it only jacks
up the cost and make-up time. But feel free if it floats your
boat! The techflex and heat shrink would be added after the
fact.

Courtesy of Otto

The heat shrink serves at least a couple of purposes, to

secure the techflex in place, and to act as a strain relief,
much as the spring does with the Neutrik and Radio Shack
Gold connector. However, Ive seen in my former cable-
repairing career that if there is a cable failure due to
breakage of the center conductors, it will be just past the end
of the heat shrink, since that becomes the hinge where the
cable is bent and flexed. So basically, the heat shrink just
moves the potential breakage point downstream, as it were.
In my opinion spring strain reliefs are better because they
soften the bend by giving it a wider radius.

Another method to utilize the heat shrink is to send it under

the barrel, instead of on top, as Owen Bartley did here.

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Courtesy of Owen Bartley

Making Y cables
In Part 2 where we discussed the best RCA connectors
(Post #5), I mentioned that the preferred technique to
accomplish a Y split is at the RCA connector, not by
splicing three loose cable ends together, which is what many
custom cable makers do. You can make a Y cable by using
a Dayton Super RCA connector with the enlarged 8.3 mm
opening in the barrel and a low profile cable like the Canare
L-2E5. The two cable ends to be spliced would be prepd as
described in Post #7, but with the center conductors and
shields of both cables twisted together - before tinning. Here
are a couple of pictures of the finished product.

Actually, the center conductors should have been pushed

into the solder cup a little further than shown here, so this
isnt exactly my best work.

Stress issues
Notice in the pictures above that the center conductors are a
bit slack i.e. not stretched tightly between the end of the
cable and the solder cup. This is done intentionally for the
purpose of increased durability. The premise is based on the
fact that the center conductor is fairly fragile compared to the
much-thicker and more-substantial shield. In the event that

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the cable ever gets yanked or subjected to similar abuse, the

shield will be what takes the brunt of the punishment, not the
center conductor. Thus, the cable will sustain the abuse and
not fail.

The hall of shame

Now that youre a highly trained soldering expert, youre sure
to be amused by this stunning example of what not to do
that I came across a few years ago on another Forum see
the next three pictures.

Frankly Id be too embarrassed to post these pictures on the

Internet if this was my work. This poor fellow shows every
classic soldering mistake that there ever was. This is an
example of everything done wrong from start to finish.

Right off the bat we can see our amateur chose a cable
thats too large for the connector, which is a 3.5 mm mini
headphone plug (formerly know as a 1/8 stereo plug).
Notice, theres no way the cable clamp will ever fit around
that cable. The cable has four conductors, which is totally
unnecessary as only three are needed for this application, a
headphone extension cable. A simple two-conductor low
profile mic cable like the Canare L-2E5 would have done the
job (with the shield functioning as the third conductor).

You can see in the first picture that he inserted the stripped
wire ends into the holes in the terminal arms and looped
them back. He thinks this will make the connection more
secure. Well get to that in a minute, but the main problem is
that he did not tin the wire!

Never, never, solder wires to a connector without first tinning

them! And the connector! If you dont, when you go to solder,
the wire will never get hot enough for the solder to flow into it
and some of these pictures show thats exactly what
happened. The reason is that the point of termination to the
connector (i.e. where the wire will be soldered tip, sleeve,
solder cup, etc.) needs to absorb heat too, in order for the
solder to adhere to it (since it also wasnt tinned before hand
), and therefore siphons off heat from the wire. Sure, you
could leave the iron on long enough for solder to flow into the
wire properly, but that will result in the terminal getting so hot
itll melt the plastic or nylon inserts in the connector. In other
words, the connector will be ruined. It will also most likely
ruin the wire as well, melting the insulation.

The result of this poor soldering technique is that the wire

never gets fully infused with solder. You have no way of
knowing if the solder actually penetrated into the wire or if its
merely sitting on top of the wires circumference. This
connection may be electrically viable but it is not physically
robust, as would be if everything had been properly tinned
first.

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Plus, as weve shown, you only need enough solder to fuse

the tinned wire and connector together no more, no less.
Blobbing on excess solder like you see here doesnt result
in any advantage or improvement in the electrical or physical
connection. Indeed, it can result in a short circuit when you
screw the barrel onto the connector.

So, what about inserting your wires tinned or not into and
through the connector terminals holes and bending them
back, like you see here? Will this make the connection more
secure from stress or abuse? In a word, no. You might think
it would make the individual wires more resistant to breaking,
but such is not the case. The reality is that once the wire is
tinned, it becomes much stronger than it was before. In the
event of stress or abuse, the wire will not break or break
loose at the point of termination. It cant, because its
effectively welded to the connector. Whats going to happen
is that the wire will break a little further down, where it is not
tinned. Thats right, the solder connection will remain intact;
the untinned wire downstream is the weak link. Believe me,
Ive seen every kind of damage a cable and/or connector can
sustain while I was repairing those countless dozens of
cables from shows and concerts. Trust me, you will never -
never! - see the cable fail at the point of the soldered
connection! (Unless it was a cold joint to begin with.) The
most common failure in cables that are abused or simply
handled a lot is the center conductor(s) breaking just past
the barrel of the connector, because this is the hinge point
where the cable gets bent, twisted and flexed a lot.

In addition, looping the wire through the holes in a

connection terminal like this increases your chances for a
short circuit, especially in the small, close-quarters
connectors we use in home audio. Itll happen when the
barrel is screwed on i.e. the short will occur between the
barrel, which has continuity with the sleeve connection (i.e.
signal [-]), and the wire protruding profusely from the
hole-through terminal (signal [+]).

Sure, many connectors, especially 3.5 mm and 1/4, have a

protective cardboard or plastic sleeve inside the barrel to
prevent this. But notice in the pictures how the termination
arms are spread far wider than the connector itself. See
those threads on the connector? Thats as wide as
everything is going to be when the barrel is screwed on.
When the barrel is screwed on its going to squeeze
everything together, and that could very well cause a short
as one terminal bends and makes connection with another
or rather with the blob of solder on another.

Ill give this guy credit for even trying to tackle a 3.5 mm
head phone plug, which is one of the more difficult and
tedious connectors to solder. With most of them, there isnt
much room under the hood so the tolerances are really
tight.

If you need to make a 3.5 mm cable, either mono or stereo,

Canares F11 (mono) and F12 (stereo) connectors are hands
down the best available and easiest to work with. Canare

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had the good sense to realize, Just because the plug itself
is small, that doesnt mean the barrel has to be. Thats right,
the F11 and F12 feature a full-sized barrel with an opening
that can even accept the full-sized Canare's L-2T2S cable
recommended in Post #2. You can see the difference in
barrel sizes in the pictures below of a common and Canare
3.5 plugs.

Maintenance issues
As previously mentioned, the best thing you can do to
preserve your soldering tip is to clean it each time you put it
down, and especially before you turn off the iron at the end
of a project. Burned rosin is a corrosive agent, and leaving it
on the tip will eventually ruin it.

Even if you do take care to keep the tip cleaned, they dont
last forever. If you notice that the iron is taking a long time to
heat up, or never seems to be hot enough, thats an indicator
that its probably time to replace the tip. But before you do,
check to see if the set screw is tight, if there is one.

Aside from that, its a good idea to keep some of the

specialty tools, such as the Xcelite 170M shearcutter and
103S wire stripper, designate as for soldering use only or
perhaps other light-duty uses. This will keep their cutting
edges sharp. Especially, dont use them to cut any solid-core
wire heavier than telephone wire. Gauges any heavier
(numerically smaller) will very likely gouge the cutting edge.

The 103S strippers have an attached arm thats designed to

keep the handles locked down in the fully-closed position for
more compact storage. I suggest, do not use it! I found that
storing them with the handles locked down would make the
torsion-bar spring break after a couple of years. This might
not be the case for the casual user, but it certainly was when
I was an installer, using them on a regular basis and locking
them down at the end of the day. Once I started storing them
with the handle open I have broken no more springs, and
Ive been using my current pair for more than 10 years now.
Fortunately, if you do break a spring Xcelite has a
free-replacement warranty.

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Part 5: Soldering XLR and

1/4 connectors
Once youve mastered soldering RCA and other home audio
connectors, youll find the XLRs and 1/4 connectors typically
found in pro audio equipment are pretty easy. As with RCAs,
the key to a successful project is to properly prepare the
cable for the connector youre using. Once that is done,
soldering to the connector is a piece of cake.

I wont go into the full detail of stripping, prepping and tinning

the cable here refer to Post #7 for that.

First up well look at 1/4 connectors. These come in two

varieties, TS (tip/sleeve) and TRS (tip/ring/sleeve). These
are also commonly called mono and stereo, respectively.

One of the unfortunate and shortcomings in just about every

field of audio has been the chronic practice of utilizing
common connectors for multiple applications. For instance,
the ubiquitous RCA connector has been used for line level
audio, video, coaxial digital signals, and even for speaker
connections (no kidding, back in the 60s). In musical
instrument applications, the mono or 1/4 TS plug has been
used for both low-level electric guitar inputs and high-level
speaker connections. The stereo or 1/4 TRS plug has
been used both in home audio for headphone plugs, and in
professional audio for balanced signal connections.

As you can imagine, this has been a constant source of

confusion, as each of the abovementioned applications
require a specific and appropriate cable, even if they share
the same plug or connector. The main thing to keep in mind
is that any cable used for line or mic-level signals must be
shielded, and that mic or signal cable is light-duty and should
not be used for connections between an amplifier and
speaker.

TS/mono 1/4" connectors

The cable for a 1/4" TS connector is prepd much the same
way as a RCA, except that the shield is typically longer. The
picture below shows both center conductors of a mic cable
tied together. Naturally, one of conductors can be tied into
the shield, as outlined in Post #8.

Heres what the finished connector should look like after

soldering. Note that the cables outer jacket is far enough
forward to be gripped by the cable clamp. Also notice that
the center conductors are not stretched tight. I leave them a
bit long when preping the cable, so as to give them some
slack. The idea is that the shield is much more robust than
the center conductors, which are thin and relatively fragile. In
the event that the cable ever gets yanked or is subjected to
similar abuse, the shield will be what takes the brunt of the
punishment, and the cable will not fail.

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After soldering, use your pliers to secure the cable clamp,

screw on the connector barrel, and youre done.

TRS/stereo 1/4" connectors

Soldering 1/4" TRS connectors is a bit trickier, but not much.
With a TRS cable youll be using both center conductors
i.e., you wont tie them together.

My favorite 1/4" TRS connector is the Switchcraft #297. Its

an excellent plug with a superb build quality, but in stock
form its a bit cumbersome for soldering. With the barrel
removed you can see that one of the tabs sticks out at a
weird angle, and there is a plastic protector covering the arm
(shield connection) thats basically just in the way.

So Ive always modified the 297 a bit. The first thing I do is

clip off the angled tab with my 8 side cutters.

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The next thing we want to do is get rid of the useless shield

protector. Well clip this with our Xcelite 170M cutters.

After the connector is prepd it can be tinned. Tin the inside

of the two tabs, as thats where well be soldering the wires.
The arm will be tinned for the shield just behind the
clipped-off protector.

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Once the connector is prepd, we can move on to prepare

our cable. The center conductors need to be long enough to
spread between the two tabs on the connector. Better to
have the center conductors a bit too long with some slack
than too tight. Heres what the prepd and tinned cable end
will look like (with the center conductors perhaps a bit longer
than this). The shield lead will be shorter than the center
conductors.

Youll probably want your connections to follow accepted

signal (+) and (-) protocol, for both cable and connector. For
cables, the red conductor will usually be signal (+), and black
will be signal (-) (as an example there is no industry
standard for mic cable center conductor colors). For the
connector, the tip is signal (+) and the ring is signal (-). If
youre unsure which tab is tip or ring, use an ohm meter to
check continuity.

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Heres what the connector will look like after soldering. I got
this example a bit tight. More length on the center
conductors is acceptable as long as the cables jacket can
be fully secured in the cable clamp.

By the way, any good 1/4" connector will include a cardboard

or plastic sleeve under the barrel that slips over the
connections. Do not forget to use it!!!

XLR connectors
We've previously discussed the importance of using good
connectors, but this is especially critical with female XLRs . A
lot of people make the mistake of buying cheap female XLRs
not realizing that they are total junk, living on borrowed time.
Take a look at this picture that compares a cheap and quality
connector:

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The bottom connector is a Switchcraft, the top is a no-name

something-or-another. See the little ball at the business end
of Switchcraft? The Switchcraft has two of those, and they
are spring loaded. The purpose they serve is to maintain a
tight pressure connection in the socket they are plugged into.

Now look at the cheap connector. It has no spring loaded

balls. All it has is a couple of "bulging tabs" to ensure a good
connection (for lack of a better term - one of them seen here
circled in green, between the two dark strips). The problem is
that over time, the tabs will collapse, and you end up with a
goose-loose connection that has a lot of flex and give. That
in turn wallows out the plug's three sockets, which then can
easily make and break connection. So basically, the whole
mechanical structure of the connector is compromised.

So, dont waste your time with cheap female XLRs. Use only
a brand name like Switchcraft or Neutrik. (Note that the
Neutrik connectors dont use a bulging tab or a spring-loaded
ball to physically secure the connection. Dont let that deter
you, theyre excellent connectors.)

As it is with any type of connector, the key to a successful

XLR cable project is preping the cable. Typically the pinout
for audio XLRs will be Pin 1 = shield; Pin 2 = signal (+); Pin 3
= signal (-). However, older pro audio gear made before the
1990s may be Pin 3 = (+), so know what your equipment
requires before you make your cables. Combining old and
new gear can end up with one of them having the signal
polarity wrong on one end (NOTE: This applies to 1/4" TRS
connectors as well).

Unlike the other connectors weve looked at, the shield for
XLRs will be the same length as the center conductors.

Keep in mind when preping your cable that it should be

correctly oriented for the connectors gender. Since XLRs
pins are arranged in a circle and the male and female
connections mate to each other, their pin arrangements are
different. One is arranged (clockwise) 2-3-1, and the other is
1-3-2. Cable orientation makes a difference when preping

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the cable. For instance, the cables red center conductor will
typically go to Pin 2 (+), and the black conductor to Pin 3 (-)
(again, this is for example there is no industry standard
for the colors). With the correct orientation, once the cable is
prepd the red conductor will fall naturally to Pin 2, and the
black to Pin 3. If you have to twist the conductors across
each other to reach the correct pin, you have the orientation
wrong. Nothing to worry about, just solder that end to the
other XLR e.g. male instead of female.

When tinning a male XLR, the solder cup will need to be fully
filled with solder. In the picture below the left-side cup has
been tinned; the right side has not.

Heres what the finished connection will look like.

During soldering, the easiest way to deal with a male XLR is

to plug it into a female XLR. The female XLR can then be
easily held in place by your helping hands apparatus (see
Part 3).

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Unbalanced XLR concerns

In a home audio system using both consumer and
professional equipment, often the front end (pre amp) will
have RCA connections, which is an unbalanced output. If
youre using a downstream pro audio processor, often they
will have XLR connections only. So (naturally) youll need
cables with RCAs on one end and XLRs on the other. Unlike
balanced connections, the unbalanced signal sent from a pre
amp via RCAs technically needs only two connections to
operate. But as youve noticed, XLRs have three
connections.

As previously mentioned, the pinout for balanced audio

XLRs is Pin 1 = shield; Pin 2 = signal (+); Pin 3 = signal (-).
However, with unbalanced audio signals the signal (-) is
carried on the cables shield. So when making a cable with
RCAs on one end and an XLR on the other, the shield
should connect to Pin 3, with a jumper added between Pins
3 and 1. If there is ground-loop noise in the system, often it
can be alleviated by not installing the jumper.

You would have a similar connection with an RCA to 1/4"

TRS cable, with the latters tip carrying the signal (+) and the
ring carrying (-), and a jumper between the ring and the
sleeve (i.e. the arm where the shield is normally soldered).
However, with the possible purpose of eliminating a ground
loop, there is no reason to use a RCA/TRS cable. The same
connection can be functionally achieved with a RCA/TS
cable.

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