Speaker wire... Diy?

You got lucky. There are a few threads discussing counterfeit cables with people reporting how they sound. Responses are all over the place.

As you probably know, there is no shortage of cable threads here with any topic you can, and cannot, imagine. Good luck getting something out of them, though. They are personality competitions, for the most part. Your thread is, actually, polite and restrained one, but if you are looking for every post being on topic you envisioned, you are on the wrong website. It just does not happen and it would be strange if it did. Multiply that by, at least, 100, if the thread is about cables. You are new to this, so bear with us.

I have taken part in a Speaker Cable Comparison recently in the UK.
It took place at the home of a individual where at least half the attendees had a familiarity with the system in use, which was a
EAR 988, Wadia CDP, Quad 2812.
Four of the attendees are Quad Speaker owners
The Cables put out for comparisons were presented in the following order.
Quad Odyessey, Naim NAC 05, True Signal Silver,
Mapleshade Double Helix, Transparent, LFD.
The Mapleshades and True signal, were unknown cables to the group apart from the cable owners.
I am not personally of the opinion a cable has to match a system, as I have not had the experience of seeing how one cable can perform when placed in a multitude of systems.
I am of the opinion that cables when compared in a system side by side will at certain times show differences that can be referred to as a attractor and offers a improvement in SQ.
In the case of the above cables, the cables that totally took on the role of offering a improved SQ, that was a unanimous agreement by all seven listeners was the Mapleshade and True Signal Silver.
Following the session, certain members requested a loan of either of the two cables to take home and experience them in their own systems.
Interestingly the owners of the most well known brands and possibly most expensive cables were expressing their thoughts on how low down the list of they were at producing a attractive impression to the SQ.   

ddjr,  if you look at transparent cables you will notice a box on the cable,  Rectangler in shape. I call it a network box. Just Google transparent cables, u will see it. My entire system is transparent cables except for 2 cables. Only because at the time I purchased 2 rca to balanced the store did not have those 2 cables in transparent.  Eventually they will be transparent.  

I do not mean this as any kind of personal attack but these days I’m very disinclined to accept any cable comparison results. I say this because of a whole raft of reasons including, but not limited to, cables under test are not broken in sufficiently to draw valid conclusions, the test system may very well be insufficiently resolving for the task (or have errors), the mere removing of a cable disrupts the delicate electrical-mechanical interface of the connector which takes many hours to reestablish itself, there is no consideration of cryogenics, there is no consideration of cable directionality and - finally - I’m not sure i agree that CD is the proper format for cable evaluations given the rather generic sound quality, crappy SNR, resolution and poor dynamic range of the format, generally speaking.

The Quad’s are a particularly prickly speaker to match with gear and or room, let alone cables.  They are colored and far from neutral.  They are also not inherently very dynamic nor capable of realistic dynamics.  They are very revealing and smooth and tend to be coveted by those who prefer detail over a realistic balance.  No wonder cables that emphasize clarity over natural tone and dynamics would be favored.  Transparent delivers a full range, weighty and dynamic sound with unforced detail.  Something the Quad speakers find difficult to handle.