DIY Cables Vs. Monster Cables (1 Viewer)

[Tim Hood]

Ummm (dodging the arguments...)

Where are you getting your cables and RCA's? What about the crimper?

Thanks,

Tim

 

[Elbert Lee]

Sorry, Tim - I wanted to address your question as well. I just had to state my opinion so that you might have a reference to compare your custom cables with. (it would be good to know that your time, effort, and money will yield better results than a pre-packaged product that costed the same amount)

In San Francisco, there was a store called Ultimate Sound that sold spools of cables (speaker, coax, sub, etc.) and termination. The cost was based on length and termination. They had spools from various manufacturers such as Monster, Kimber, etc. and were probable cheaper than the pre-packaged one.

Of course, you are welcome to just purchase the cable and do the soldering yourself.

I'm sure that there must be a similar b&m store in your local area that provides the same products/service. Some of the custom HT design stores should also have spools of cable that is sold by the foot or meter as well as the appropriate ends.

Elbert

 

[Marc Bodin]

I know that this is a big issue among audio enthusiasts, and a lot of people believe that they can tell the difference between cables. This is my opinion:

Any cable CAN NOT improve the sound of your system. Cables DEGRADE the signal. RCA cables can make a difference in sound when noise is the issue. Some RCA cables reject noise better than others. This is not an issue in a home. The difference between a low end set of RCA's and a high end set may be mesurable, but will not be audible. By making your own cables, as long as you put them together correctly, allows you to have the exact length that you require, as well as the looks that you want, at most likely lower cost. You could go to radio shack and get RCA's for cheap, they would produce the same results.

As far as speaker wire goes, just make sure that you have a large enough gauge. Wire is wire.

If you can tell the difference between interconnects, and between speaker wires, then you have the "golden ears".

Good luck with your cables.

 

[Richard Travale]

If you can tell the difference between interconnects, and between speaker wires, then you have the "golden ears"

I disagree. I made an interconnect for a friend who had been using generic ship with the unit type RCA cable for his sub. When he took the cable home and connected it without changing any of the settings he heard an incredible difference in the volume and in the quality of sound. This was not with me in the room saying "doesn't it sound better now?" either.

 

[Marc Bodin]

Rich,

No disrespect intended, as I am sure your interconnect was top notch, but there must have been something severly wrong with the original cable your friend was using for him to notice a large difference in volume and sound quality.

As I said before, a cable has the ability to do damage to sound, not improve upon it.

 

[Larry Proud]

Marc,

You are absolutely right, no cable or speaker wire or receiver or speaker can improve sound, the very best we can hope for is to deliver the sound exactly like it was originaly produced. That said, the better the cable, the less it degrades the sound.

Larry

 

[Brian Bunge]

Marc,

I think what Richard is talking about is a very cheap, unshielded cable. The only time I ever heard a true difference in cables was going from the el cheapo unshielded RCA that I used to use in my old car audio system to a shielded RCA. I'm talking about the RCA's which have clear insulation that basically looks like 12 gauge wire with an RCA plug on the end. I immediately noticed more output from my subwoofer when I changed to the shielded cable.

Brian

 

[Marc Bodin]

Brian,

I agree that properly constructed RCA's will be an improvement over poorly constructed ones. The difference between two quality cables though, whether they be home made or purchased, in most situations, will be negligible.

 

[Brian Bunge]

I agree that properly constructed RCA's will be an improvement over poorly constructed ones. The difference between two quality cables though, whether they be home made or purchased, in most situations, will be negligible.

Agreed!