Cable Asylum: REVIEW: DIY by Chris VenHaus Cat5 Speaker Cable Cable by Loser McDuff

Thought I'd take a moment and add my experience on making this cable and critique the finished product.

To cut to the chase, YES, they are well worth the investment of time and money!

BACKGROUND

This whole audio thing for me started rather innocently when I picked up a used Sugden amp a few months back, for $300. Shit, it sounded incredibly smoother and more detailed than my $2000 Yamaha DSP amp. I was hearing shit I never heard before! Like most people in this situation, it WAS like rediscovering my CD collection.

(I have a rather "modest" system in comparison to many, Sugden amp ,Rotel CD player and PSB CS260 tower speakers).

This simple purchase renewed my interest in my stereo and so began my search for good interconnects and speaker cable.

I surfed around a lot and concluded that the DH Labs seemed to be a perfect price point for me. I started actively looking for a Canadian distributor, when I came across an article describing the OFC magnet wire interconnects.

I read the article several times. They were an excellent first time DIY project because, they're simple enough to build, and I could pick up all the necessary components at the local electronics store down the road.

I made these interconnects for about $7 Canadian (that's like $4 dollars US) in about half an hour in my basement.

Plugged them in and, HOLY SHIT, WHAT A DIFFERENCE!

"Sound staging", heard about it, but never experienced it, started happening. IT WAS A REVELATION!

Why was it that these cheap interconnects BLEW AWAY my $100 Cardas interconnects? What's going on here? What else is there out there I donâ€™t know?!

Now I was cooking and ready to find a good DIY speaker cable.

After a lot of investigating I concluded these babies would be my next project, plus I had free access to all the CAT5 cable I needed (hee hee).

MAKING THE CABLE

For starters, these are a bear to make, definitely NOT an evening project. I came across a problem, which I'd like to pass on.

The "rip cord", used to remove the CAT 5 shield is pretty sensitive. What I mean by that is AFTER braiding several sets together I noticed that on some cables the wire was exposed! How the hell did that happen? If they touched, and I had it cranked, I could say bye-bye to my amp!

I realized that if you donâ€™t hold the cable just so, the "rip cord" CAN potentially "strip" the Teflon coating from the copper. So be real careful about this and learn by MY mistake!

I was adamant to make these babies perfect, so I ditched the few "exposed" sets that I had braided and made new ones. Bummer.

Braiding them wasn't sooo bad, its kind more like bending them, since they are after all metal. But I quickly got the hang of it AND the finger cramps, which follow.

I did these over several nights, taking my time and being careful to ensure consistency.

Once I'd done all the braiding I crimped them to some inexpensive gold binding posts I picked up. My attempts to solder then with silver solder failed miserably due to the high temperature required, and not obtained by my soldering iron. But in retrospect, perhaps this was all for the better.

Anyways, I hooked the suckers up and they sounded SWEET! Bass, Highs, everything is coming in sharper! I noticed they kinda have a warmer sound than my high-end Monsters, which I had previously been using (these suckers had cost me over $100 bucks 5 years ago!). All this from an initial listening test and they still need to be "broken in"!

I cut 9 foot lengths, which after all the braiding and snipping gave me a good 6 foot pair. I couldn't imagine making a larger pair.

Total time to make; approx. 20 hours.

So thatâ€™s it, definitely a worth while project. Next DIY project up for this fellow is a stereo rack where I can move the stereo around freely for easy access to the back. I've settled on making the TNT Flexy DIY Audiophile rack with slight modifications.

Thanx again Chris for the recipe, highly recommended!

PS: Chris I realize you also have a recipe for silver interconnects, but alas I'll need to order the necessary materials from a store, thatâ€™s why I defaulted to the magnet wire interconnects.

REVIEW: DIY by Chris VenHaus Cat5 Speaker Cable Cable Review by Loser McDuff at Audio Asylum