Will I hear a difference with these cables?

Mceljo,
When I mentioned "nude" I was only referring to the termination. I prefer silver tinning the end of the cable and connecting directly to the speaker and amp. The best connector is no connector at all don't you think? Adding another interface and possibly mixing different metals with competing physics can only harm the signal, This affects timing, bass response, smearing of notes/clarity etc. IMO. (speaker connectors... all of them are for convienience. If it was practical they would all be hard wired from the amp to the speaker. No connector at all).

Agreed, I considered going without a connector at the speaker, but in an attempt to do some A/B comparisons I wanted it to be as quick and simple as possible. Also, the back of my receiver is nearly impossible to get at so the banana plugs are a life saver.

Here's my fisrt impressions of my new DIY speaker cables after a few hours of listening.

I am convinced that my system has never sounded better, but that's very different that saying that sounds better than it ever has.

If I were forced to describe a few specifics of things that think I can hear that is different I would say the following:

(1) On several songs I've heard some additional details that I don't remember hearing in the past. An example was a flute deep in the background of a song.

(2) The higher frequencies seem a little more crisp on certain songs.

(3) The lower frequencies seem a bit more defined.

(4) Some of my CDs that have a harsh tone in the highs seem to be less harsh even though I can still hear the harshness. Maybe a better way to describe it is that I can hear the harshness but it's not as distracting or objectionable now.

(5) It seems that I'm listening to things will a little more volume now which indicates that the overall sound results is less listening fatigue.

Hi Mceljo

As you have spent more time with your DIY Cat5e speaker wire what do you think? Anything to add in addition to what you mention above? Also what Cat5e cable did you use?

I'm going to try Belden 1701A cable.

Thanks

Jedinite24 - I have no idea what type of cable I'm useing because it came from the scrap bin at work. It's Cat5 with foil shielding so it should be a decent product. A week ago Monday I attempted to do an A/B comparison between my Cat5 based cables and the old Monster Original cables, but gave up before having success. After listening to about six songs with the Cat5 based cables and taking notes on specific songs and receiver volumes I attempted to switch cables and had the crimp on banana plugs start pulling off. The back of my receiver is difficult to access so after a few tries to salvage the connectors I gave up for the day and will try again when the better quality connectors that I have on order arrive.

All I can tell you is that more than once I've found myself listening to a level of detail that I had not previously noticed. This has happened during both critical listening and also when I'm listening while reading of playing on the internet. They certainly didn't hurt the sound in any way.