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DIY cables question

Hello,

I first dipped my toe into hifi during covid and being on a budget, I slowly bought used to build up my system including a decision to DIY my own speaker cables. I bought 20ft of Mogami 3014 wire along with some gold plated banana plug connectors and while having zero soldering experience gave it a go. To date everything works fine but I’m left questioning whether my potentially "shoddy" soldering work is my weakest link and is holding back my setup. I’ve been flip flopping back and forth on just buying some used name brand speaker cables so I can stop the torment. I guess my main question is, when wires work, is it black or white, meaning they either connect or they dont, or can bad soldering limit the max performance of the cables or furthermore my entire setup?

Aside from my DIY speakers cables everything else is name brand, I use AudioQuest Earth RCAs (TT to Pre) and AQ McKenzie XLRs (Pre to Hegel H360), and a Curious USB cable ( Stream Box S2 Ultra to Denafrips Pontus II)

Thanks in advance.



sc0rpi043
sc0rpi043 OP
15 posts
 
@ oldhvymec 

Thanks for taking the time to provide such detail, seems like the consensus is no solder w/connectors or go bare wire all the way. IF I can find the time I will give it a go, just been spread so thin lately, its hard to even sit down and listen to some tunes. 
sc0rpi043 OP
15 posts
 
@millercarbon

All valid points!, outsourcing to someone experienced on here may be the happy medium between cost savings and quality 
sc0rpi043 OP
15 posts
 
@vinylzone

I actually came across a speaker cable company who sold their wire with the recommendation to go bare, interesting for sure, makes sense to cut the middle man out.
sc0rpi043 OP
15 posts
 
@tsushima1 

are you recommending to silver solder bare wire to the terminal post directly? 
bobthenailer's avatar
bobthenailer
41 posts
 
Get a spool of 5-9’s fine silver 18 AWG and  some PTFE tubing with an ID large enough to accommodate your wire. Terminate them with hard-drawn 8 AWG fine silver wire pin terminals. Better than any commercial cables no matter the price.  
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