Speaker Cables - DIY vs. Buy

RVJII

I've been looking at upgrading my cables lately and I just wondered what the general consensus was on DIY vs. buying. It seems like DIY wouldn't be that difficult and allows for more of a custom length.

I was looking at using the following materials to replace my front and center cables (bi-wire configuration):

http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/pshowdetl.cfm?&DID=7&Partnumber=185-184

http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?&User_ID=16312526&St=9137&St2=87173760&St3=43287864&DS_ID=3&Product_ID=2794&DID=7

http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/pshowdetl.cfm?&DID=7&Partnumber=082-334

Whenever I read about all of the brand cables they always talk about shielding, time correct windings, etc. I guess that I'd really like to know what the story is with the fact vs. hype.

Also, would it matter if I ran the bi-wire cables in the same tech-flex sheath? I would think that it wouldn't but then again maybe it would. (Can you get "cross talk" on a speaker cable???)

Any input, opinions, experiences would be appreciated...

ChrisDurano

I'd be interested to read on some follow-ups. Since I just spent $150 in bi-wire.

polkatese

I have a very good result using the attached bi-wire cable for my surrounds.

http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?&User_ID=15757048&St=8115&St2=44339548&St3=-77113725&DS_ID=3&Product_ID=2869&DID=7

try it out...

Wardsweb

First let me say I'm not a big cable guy. I do believe there are some differences in cables and some will make a difference in your system ( not necessarily better ). The real advantage would come when it is the weakest link in your system. Now, having said that, I do make my own cables. I've used many different types of coax, multi-stranded copper, standed and solid core silver and silver plate... For me the major advantages have been custom length and price.

steveinaz

Great looking cables! You'll probably get a million different views on this one. I'm too lazy to build my own, but I do wait for great cables to go on sale. I do notice a difference in my system between stranded and solid core (both speaker and IC's) and could never go back to stranded cables.

Maybe its just my particular systems "synergy" but stranded cables always sound, well, "congested" for lack of a better term. I also notice that treble is "scratchy" or grainy sounding with stranded wire, and I've tried some pretty expensive cables of this type.

Keep in mind I have an "Audio Only" 2-channel system, and am VERY picky about my sound.

polkatese

looks great, ww! I like the fact that you don't have to heat-shrink wrap the flex at the joint.

Btw, on something unrelated to DIY, how do you like your Shanling T-100? any issue with cue-ing from track to track on CD? When you have a chance, I would be interested to hear your review of it, still need to understand what's the diff. with its sibling T200. Thanks...

now, back to the original program....

acdds

Radio Shack has some good non-solder banana clips for $7.99 a pair instead of the monster bananas.

RVJII

Ok, I just took apart a Monster MCX-1s cable to see about all of these "special" features such as "magnetic flux tubing", etc. So upon further examination it looks like 12 guage stranded copper in a clear jacket soldered onto (in this case) gold plated M-Locks. Other than being "ultra pure copper", which I can't see by looking, is there something here that I am missing? Is copper with less iron in it really that much better than regular copper for signal transfer?

There is this nice, thick grey sleve that the wire is in but it really seems to serve no purpose, other than to hid the fact that the wire looks no different than what I could buy at radio shack.

Any further input guys? I know that some of you are quite passionate about cables and I'm just trying to understand why monster, cobalt, signal, etc are all better than something that I can make myself. I know that some will say that it just "sounds better" and you "need to hear it to understand" but can anyone tell me why? If it does indeed sound better than there must be reason based in the construction and materials. Please help me out here guys.

(Let me just add that I am not trying to put down expensive cables either...I am just trying to understand. At this point the jury is still out for me and I don't know which way to go. I was going to go with Signal shotgun but would at least like to understand what I am spending my money on.)

Thanks for your input guys...

tapeshc

I am also doing the same kind of research/search as I dont have much money to spare but plenty of time for doing this.:D

Here are some links that may help you

http://www.audioholics.com/techtips/audioprinciples/cables.htm

http://www.tnt-audio.com/clinica/diycables.html

After reading many reading material floating around on internet Bottom line (as of now at this moment )

Interconnect - Capacittance and sheilding are key to good interconnect. Resistance and Inductance, unless until you goof up will be ok on their own. Use Belden wires you have plenty of options.

Speaker Wire - Resistane and indiuctance should be kept in control without compromising capacitance else high freq. roll off.
Try TNT-Audio CAT 5E cable seems good.

Cardas Audio.com has good amount of insight in to various aspects, though price is way beyond my reach.

To me good wires and construction like Cardas Audio do make a diff. But possibly you can achieve 95% of this with these DIY schemes or may be CobalCable or BlueJeans. For last 5% if I have money then may be I will go for Cardas one day

Early B.

I made my own speaker cables using Canare Quad cable that I bought for $0.69/foot from Markertek.com. It's thick, high quality cable. This is the same cable used in many recording studios. So if it's good enough for the professionals, it's certainly good enough for my home theater system. And it's cheap, too. The cables were better than the standard Monster and AR speaker cables I purchased from Circuit City. Slightly more detail.

I bought some banana plugs from partsexpress.com. if you want to make them pretty, you can also purchase techflex.

mantis

For the tech side of things,

go to www.monstercable.com

they wil tell you all about WHY there cables are built the way thy are.

The bottom line isn't tech reasons,it's ALL ABOUT how it sounds.If you can;t get past that then just build your own and call it a day.

You know after many years of playing around with cables,the bottom line isn't how it's made,how cool it looks,how much money it took to get there.It's again all about sound quality.

reading online on the companies websites will give you all the tech stuff you want.Learn away I say.

Did I mention the way it sounds????

Think about it,why do you use cables?To get the signal to the other side.
The other goal is getting it there the best way possible.

I'll give you this,Interference is a big reason why some cables sound better then the other.Another is the purity of the conductor.The wire needs to have the ability to carry all the signal pumped and not add or take anything away on it's journey.

When you get into higher quality wires,you will see/hear less and less of differences as they all start to do there jobs well.Some will do somethings better then others.The needs of the system will hinder what cable is correct.

Do you question why a receiver is made the way it is and why you have to spend cash???Or is it about the features and how good it sounds with your speaker package?

So many questions and so many answers.