Creating "Nude" ICs and Digital Links from MusicBoy/Petra Cables

Here are some photos showing how to create "nude" cables from Music Boy/Petra
interconnects and component video cables (same construction) available from Starlink. These were originally sold by Starlink as Music Boy cables and now carry a "Petra Industries" identification, but they're all the same coax cables.They sound very good even in stock form and are dirt cheap -- $8.95 for a six-foot trio of component video cables, for instance.

Undertake these nude cables at your own risk. In addition to the directions below, be careful that the center conductor wires do not come in contact with the ground wires. If you're going to try them, I'd suggest first substituting them in a link where the ICs are going to stay put for a while, although they will stand for a limited amount of inserting, removal, and reinserting. In addition to their use as ICs, I've also had a lot of success using them as digital cables between a CDP and DAC -- trying all lengths from 6" to 7 1/2'. I'm sure others will come up with improvements; please share them with me here or offline. Good luck.

A Music Boy/Petra cable showing the stock RCA plug. First step: Use your wire cutter to remove the plug. You can make any length cables you choose.

Using X-acto knife or box cutter, VERY CAREFULLY cut through and remove approx. one inch of the outer jacket. Try not to cut the very thin copper ground wires underneath, but nicking a few of them won't matter. You will now see the silver shield covering the dielectric. The dielectric itself will be either white, yellow, raspberry or peach in color, heaven knows why.

Fold back the ground wires onto the outer jacket and remove approx. 3/8" of the dielectric (and somewhat more of the silver shield, as shown). You'll use the 16 gauge setting on your wire stripper on the dielectric. The faucet washer in this picture is what you will use to hold the nuded cable onto an RCA jack. You can put the washers onto the cable at any time. If you can't find these faucet washers, use at least two small o-rings (per jack) instead.

Wind the half-inch teflon plumber's tape, shown, around the dielectric. Start with approximately the length of tape shown here, but this will vary depending on the inside diameter of the RCA jack. Next (although there's nothing magic about the sequence in which you do most of these things), fan out the ground wires and use scissors to trim them back to approximately 1/2". Now, fold back the center conductor wires onto the plumber's tape and try inserting the cable into the desired RCA jack. It will probably be either too loose or too tight, so add or remove tape until you achieve a snug fit. When it does fit, remove it and apply alcohol to the bare wires to remove finger oils. I also use Caig ProGold and either Silclear or Walker SST on the center conductor wires, but that's optional. Now -- final step -- insert the center conductor back into the RCA jack and firmly press the faucet washer onto the outside of the jack to hold the ground wires in place. That's it.