DIY balanced interconnects

Thanks for the responses so far. Thanks to Danmyers for the post on construction (even tho I have no interest in Cardas). I note these instructions say to connect the shield to chassis ground on the source end only, as opposed to Kijanki who recommends the load end only. I still think connecting the chassis grounds to a common (preamp) end would have some merit (and a reason to DIY).
I see 2 votes for Oyaide and as I am intrigued by the possible benfit of single crtstal/OCC cables. The Vampire CCC-II is also a cast Cu cable at half the cost of the Oyaide. I am surprised Kijanki would not consider these to be quailty materials.
Of course the real reason for DIY is $$!
BTY the new cables would be compared to Kimber KCAG cables originally bought as RCA and coverted with Neutriks to balanced as i changed components. I have had these cables at least 12 years.
Also note that I tend to agree with Ralph Of Atmasphere and do not expect to find huge differences.

Oldears - I'm probably more lazy and making things doesn't thrill me as much as it used to. When I was about 16 years old I was building EL34 100W amps and really enjoyed it. Now I don't object anymore to prepacked goods - perhaps because I can afford it and maybe because I'm more lazy as well.

Kijanki-Maybe when you retire you will become intersted in DIY again! I started audio building Dynakits and have now gone full circle.

Oldears - It interested me before it became my profession. Now I'm left without a hobby (and time for it) but should be enjoying "project" when retired.

Technology goes toward SMT and often is very layout dependant. Building class D amp, for instance, would require extensive study of PCB layout. There would be always something, I guess, to put my hands on - maybe tube amps just for the fun.

Oldears, connect the shield at both ends, which will always be pin 1. Any other connection (or lack of connection) is not standard and could cause troubles. The way it is supposed to work is that there will be no signal current in the ground- all the signal will be in the twisted pair.

The Neglex 2534 is excellent cable; I saw a set beat a pair of $15,000 cables in a system just a few days ago. You will find also that the Neutrik connectors are excellent. A major advantage compared to a lot of high end connectors is that they are built to the right dimensions and with excellent materials. I have seen several 'high end' XLR connectors that had fit problems, and damaged the connectors that they were plugged in to because the fit was too tight.

Balanced lines allow longer cable runs with lower noise and less HF losses, so they still have advantages over single ended, even without termination. However you may well hear differences between cables. To eliminate the audible differences, cable termination is a must. The industry standard for decades has been 600 ohms and is still common today. Most high end audio products do not support driving such a low value without bass response losses or overall output losses due to high output impedance issues. But without the termination, you will hear differences between cables, essentially obviating the main reason for using balanced lines in the first place!

So if you really want to get everything balanced line has to offer (read: no more expensive cables, lengths as long as you want), your equipment should support all aspects of the balanced line standard.