the Results of my DIY speaker cable venture. (1 Viewer)

[David K.]

http://www.geocities.com/rnb180/diycable.html

thats what im using for my surround speakers.

i spent A LOT of money in trial and error and equipment, ie heat shrink gun and hot knife...

hair dryers (tried 3 different ones) didnt heat the tubing tight enough and took 5 minutes to shrink one tube. so i got a heat gun,

the lighter trick didnt work with the frayed tech flex because it was too difficult to control, the tips would grow bulbs and change the sleeves physical structure way too much. so i got a hot knife

and several types of bananas...

i spent a lot of money on this project, hoepfully i can make up some of the losses by ebaying a few extra hifi cables. how much do you think a cable like this would go for?


whatcha think about the outcome?

i was going for this type of cable look, but with my own cosmetic preferences.

http://i24.ebayimg.com/01/i/01/f9/3c/11_1_b.JPG

 

[David K.]

edit, problem resolved.

 

[Jason Dalton]

You catch more flies with honey...

They are beautiful looking cables though!

Did you follow a set design, or is it your own design?

 

[minhG]

man those sure are nice for cables that live behind all my furniture.

i would feel compelled to run those in plain sight, but i don;t think everyone would agree that they're beautiful *cough* *waf* *cough*

 

[David K.]

i was trying to make cables that look like these

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...705033069&rd=1

i used my imagination and contructed the cable myself.

this is roughly an 18' pair
the zu cables site prices their 18' pair
@5.5m (18.0') pair $674


regarding WAF

then my next cables would probably give you a heart attack, the will have a neon blu jacket, and run about 7' in length, i will attach normal style gold banana plugs to them this time. i want to the cables to look very pretty hah, these will be made for front speakers. after i make them ill post them on ebay and try to make some of my losses back.

 

[Jason Dalton]

What kind/brand of parts did you use?

 

[David K.]

tech ron heat shrink, parts express adhesive heat shrink, parts express low temp heat shrink, 3/8" canare 4s11 raw cable, Black Tech flex 1/4" for termination, Carbon Fiber tech flex 3/8", vampire wire gold plated plugs, 3/4" wire loom.

Equipment,

standard Low/High temp heat gun, Hot knife, wire strippers, jewelery flat head screw drivers, scissors, clippers, pliers, clippers

and 2 hours of careful handling and building. and 110% patience.

im considering creating an FAQ DIY page to construct identical cables, do you think anyone would be interested in a site like that? I dont want to go through the trouble without it helping any other DIY ers out there.

 

[Jason Dalton]

DIYers ALWAYS like tutorials.

 

[Owen Bartley]

David, very nice work, your cables look great. I would certainly be interested in a tutorial page. Jason is right, we like to see stuff being built.

 

[Owen Bartley]

David, very nice work, your cables look great. I would certainly be interested in a tutorial page. Jason is right, we like to see stuff being built.

 

[David K.]

i ordered a digital camera in the mail, i think i mustve spent close to $500 on cable parts and equipment fiddling around with the design.

since the internet is seriously lacking in tutorials for exotic boutique cables (is it that these boutique companies want the cable recipies to be secret?), i had to engage in a lot of trial and error and ask questions on multiple audio forums, took me about 3 weeks for all my parts to arrive online and build several prototypes.

the only tutorials i was able to find online was the cat 5, and dayton banana + zip cord and 4 conductor in wall cable.

all of which were very ugly looking. I ordered a cheap ($100)digital camera from Best Buy online, and will be constructing some cables that i can hopefully sell on ebay, to make some of my money back, (this project seriously hurt my wallet, im only a part timer and college student)

so ya, when my camera arrives, ill make a tutorial, hopefully, itll save other aspiring DIY'rs time and money.

 

[David K.]

i ordered a digital camera in the mail, i think i mustve spent close to $500 on cable parts and equipment fiddling around with the design.

since the internet is seriously lacking in tutorials for exotic boutique cables (is it that these boutique companies want the cable recipies to be secret?), i had to engage in a lot of trial and error and ask questions on multiple audio forums, took me about 3 weeks for all my parts to arrive online and build several prototypes.

the only tutorials i was able to find online was the cat 5, and dayton banana + zip cord and 4 conductor in wall cable.

all of which were very ugly looking. I ordered a cheap ($100)digital camera from Best Buy online, and will be constructing some cables that i can hopefully sell on ebay, to make some of my money back, (this project seriously hurt my wallet, im only a part timer and college student)

so ya, when my camera arrives, ill make a tutorial, hopefully, itll save other aspiring DIY'rs time and money.

 

[Joe Hsu]

David, great job! Let me know if you have any flexibility in what you can build (in terms of length), as I might help you out by buying a pair.

 

[Joe Hsu]

David, great job! Let me know if you have any flexibility in what you can build (in terms of length), as I might help you out by buying a pair.

 

[David K.]

theoretically, the max cale length i can go would probably be 26'-27', anything longer and id have to buy the techflex in spools.

ive ordered parts and 5 x 8' lengths of 4 conductor cable.

the adhesive tubing and jackets will be arriving thurs. this set will will be "neon blue" (WAF Alert)go to either a friend of mine that offered me $100 a cable, and another on ebay I wanna see if they can sell for $120-$150 a pair (high hopes!)but itll be a test to guestimate how much people are willing to pay in an auction for custom exotic cables, the 5th cable will either serve me as a new center channel (cobalt cable serves as my current center cable) or ill auction that on ebay as a center cable too.

but i want to build the cables first and make sure they are good enough.

i picked neon blue as an experiment because grey and black are abundant on ebay, im guessing the neon blue will target buyers that consider exotic cables as jewelery for their speakers and only that. these will most definately be made to be scene.

 

[David K.]

theoretically, the max cale length i can go would probably be 26'-27', anything longer and id have to buy the techflex in spools.

ive ordered parts and 5 x 8' lengths of 4 conductor cable.

the adhesive tubing and jackets will be arriving thurs. this set will will be "neon blue" (WAF Alert)go to either a friend of mine that offered me $100 a cable, and another on ebay I wanna see if they can sell for $120-$150 a pair (high hopes!)but itll be a test to guestimate how much people are willing to pay in an auction for custom exotic cables, the 5th cable will either serve me as a new center channel (cobalt cable serves as my current center cable) or ill auction that on ebay as a center cable too.

but i want to build the cables first and make sure they are good enough.

i picked neon blue as an experiment because grey and black are abundant on ebay, im guessing the neon blue will target buyers that consider exotic cables as jewelery for their speakers and only that. these will most definately be made to be scene.

 

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

I guess I’m like Ming. As a former installer, to me the hallmark and goal of a first-class installation is “no visible cabling.” So I really don’t get the point of beautifying cabling that shouldn’t be seen to begin with.

Perhaps someone can enlighten me.

I did custom-make most of my cabling, but I simply used high-quality cables and connectors. The only heat shrink I used was for IDing and labeling purposes. The reason I made my own was to get high-quality interconnects for a fraction of the cost that these companys want for them, and to be able to have all my cabling made-to-length, as opposed to having bundles of too-long stuff piled up behind the gear.

Plus I had a special, efficient methodology in mind to reduce cabling “real estate” that on one sells at all.

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt

 

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

I guess I’m like Ming. As a former installer, to me the hallmark and goal of a first-class installation is “no visible cabling.” So I really don’t get the point of beautifying cabling that shouldn’t be seen to begin with.

Perhaps someone can enlighten me.

I did custom-make most of my cabling, but I simply used high-quality cables and connectors. The only heat shrink I used was for IDing and labeling purposes. The reason I made my own was to get high-quality interconnects for a fraction of the cost that these companys want for them, and to be able to have all my cabling made-to-length, as opposed to having bundles of too-long stuff piled up behind the gear.

Plus I had a special, efficient methodology in mind to reduce cabling “real estate” that on one sells at all.

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt

 

[David K.]

Some people like to show off thier audio equipment, some people like the discrete clean look, some people have a female significant.

fancy looking cables are basically targetted towards people that like beefy looking audio components, people that like to show off their stuff. The exotic cables are just jewelery or icing on the cake.

it'll also make people feel better about their purchases. Obviously those that are not interested in fancy looking cables are not the consumer based target. As long as the buyer knows these cables are nothing more then eye candy its okay. But some companies spill out some ridiculous fake science justifying cables at a $4000 price point, now thats BS.

heres a very amusing article regarding high end cables and the pay off.

http://www.stereotimes.com/cables042501.shtm

 

[David K.]

Some people like to show off thier audio equipment, some people like the discrete clean look, some people have a female significant.

fancy looking cables are basically targetted towards people that like beefy looking audio components, people that like to show off their stuff. The exotic cables are just jewelery or icing on the cake.

it'll also make people feel better about their purchases. Obviously those that are not interested in fancy looking cables are not the consumer based target. As long as the buyer knows these cables are nothing more then eye candy its okay. But some companies spill out some ridiculous fake science justifying cables at a $4000 price point, now thats BS.

heres a very amusing article regarding high end cables and the pay off.

http://www.stereotimes.com/cables042501.shtm