Anyone else making their own cables?

Constructing your own cables can be rewarding, fun and educational. IMO you are off to a good start by;

1. owning a lot of different brands of very sought after and very expensive cables,
2. experimenting with making your own,
3. doing a lot of reading on the subject of design,
4. dissecting some old inexpensive cable you had lying around, and
5. realizing the benefit of balanced construction, whether for balanced or single-ended cables.

I have taken apart more than a few manufactured cables and what I typically learn is that (other than those with network boxes, active dbs, etc.) cables are basically wire, insulation, geometry and connectors. Several have been quite disappointing in how uninspiring the construction was, compared to the marketing hype.

In my experience the most important attributes, in order of most important to least important, are wire gauge and geometry; wire material, metallurgy, purity, and processing; wire insulation; connectors and method used to attach the connectors; cable length; cryo and/or magnetic treatment, and cable conditioning with active signals (e.g., cable cooker). Cable routing between equipment is also important.

The main advantages of manufactured cables are the R&D that goes into choosing the final materials and geometery, and the uniformity of construction that is somewhat beyond what can be achieved by a typical DIY construction. One way I have found to remove the uniformity issue is to construct DIY cables by terminating some of the excellent bulk wire/cable available through on-line vendors. Although, I also believe a carefully constructed DIY cable, using good materials and geometry, can beat many of the manufactured cables out there.

Good luck. Keep us posted on your progress and results. Also, as Phil says, you may get more activity on a post like this over at AA cable asylum.

Pkoegz,

I make my own cables -- balanced ICs, speaker wires and PCs. I run the ICs in series with Elrod and Shunyata and the PCs in series with Shunyata.

I've basically stopped buying commercial cables years ago, not a good value IMO, and instead went to making my own, much better value and much better results vs cost.

You can make a kick ars cable for under $100 that would cost you $700-2500 from a cable company.Y(EARS)MV, but you should give it a try.

"What I had not realized is that single ended cables can be balanced as well."

Actually, single ended cables can't be balanced, otherwise they would be balanced cables and not single ended. I think you meant to say, cables with xlr connectors aren't always balanced and you need to be careful as to what the internal make up of the cable is before you buy it.

Zd542, no I ment what I said. Single ended phono cables are balanced. They have two conductors attached to the rca plug. One to the center plug the other to the outside housing. Plus a shield ground wire that is separately attached to the sending and receiving units housings. Some times the ground is connected at only one housing end(my preference the receiving end) and just both cable grounds together at the other end. A standard single end cable has a single conductor to center plug and a shield wire attached to housing of the plug. Some times they have two conductors except one of them meets at the ends with a shield wire which connects both together to the outer housing of the rca plug. This is not balanced. Now both single ended balanced and standard balance cables are only of value if the sending and receiving units are balanced as well. The phono cables I have dissected are all wired this way as well as all the balanced ended connector type cables. Also it is my understanding as this is how the phono cartridge and tonearm are wired. Also well designed balanced phono stages, amps and preamps among other audio electronics are designed this way as well. Sorry for the long and maybe poorly explained description. If someone sees flaws or can articulate it better please do.