What do you think of the DIY Cat 5 speaker cables

Oh yeah, I make my own, you can too.

I don't take credit, but I may have been the Cat 5 speaker cable pioneer before anyone offered them. Newer Cat 6 cables have higher specs WAY out of audio signals, improved crosstalk, BUT, are less flexible. If making more, I would stick with the flexibility of Cat 5.

"Cat5E and Cat6 cables both typically use 4 twisted pairs in each cable, and incorporate copper wires.  Cat6 cables have more stringent specifications for reduced crosstalk and system noise.  Cat6 cables provide performance speeds up to 250MHz.  Cat5 cables in contrast, only provide speeds up to 100 MHz.  A longitudinal separator (or spline) was incorporated into the Cat6 design, isolating each of the four pairs of twisted wire.  This made Cat6 cables more rigid."

I borrowed/tried so many fancy expensive cables/wires, that my wealthy audiophile friend bought/went thru.

After much reading, I decided multi-strand, small diameter, solid strand, individually insulated, made the most logic to me. Hey, cat 5? Off to radio shack. That's it, done!

Twist a few feet, tape it, twist it other direction, tape it, keeps you from needing to keep on flipping the whole length over and over.

I put colored tape on the positive cable at the ends. I have 3 sets, red, blue, green, one end with right angle spades the width that fit either Fisher or McIntosh speaker terminals; other end WBT tighten/locking high contact banana plugs, to switch from SS to tube system.

https://www.don-audio.com/WBT-0765-pole-terminals-classic-isolated-4-pieces-boxed-edition

Get some nice gold plated connectors

https://www.google.com/search?q=gold+plated+speaker+connectors&source=univ&tbm=shop&tbo=u&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiEpMrmqf3iAhWsxFkKHa_mDcIQ1TUIkQI&biw=1447&bih=732

I've never been tempted to try anything else. I made a set for my audiophile friend, all his pricey stuff in a box somewhere.

You want to twist the bare ends ONCE, connect solidly, leave them alone. IF you change them, say shorten them, or new connector type, clip some off, strip fresh ends, make proper connector.

You mentioned 'unstable'. I don't know about that, never studied those technicalities.

I used mine, 15 feet long,  with 30 wpc Fisher 80Z tube mono-blocks; 30 wpc Fisher 500c tube receivers; 320 wps McIntosh SS; now Cayin A88T tube: 22 wpc triode/45 wps ultralinear; never an issue.

btw, always make your speaker cables the same length, even if amp is/will be closer to one speaker.

clarification. I just read about weaving your own.

no way,

my method is to use Cat 5 out of the box, which is jacketed, within: 8 individualy insulated small diameter solid strands. Twist a pair of them, gives 8 wires positive, 8 wires com.

Everything individually insulated, everything internally twisted.

Strip the 8 wires, pressure them into 1 squished copper mass ready for a gold plated connectors, DONE. In no way difficult.

Badcap - I have not tried CAT5 for speaker cables, but I have tried it for interconnects. The results were OK, but far from stunning.

From a design perspective the cables you mention would be of a higher capacitance, which is something to consider if you are using them with a Solid State high current design amp. The amp could experience oscillation, which could seriously damage the amp.

If you are into DIY, take a look at the following...
http://image99.net/blog/files/category-002ahelix-speaker-cable.html

The helix cables are the best I have built to date. They outperform most of the commercial cables I have auditioned, some of which were quite expensive. 

You can use any wire you like, but the wire identified on the site has been tried recommended by myself and other DIYer's and offer the best performance to date.

Don't be put off by the looks - they are pretty easy to build and even though the coiled neutral might lead some to believe their Inductance would be an issue, I have measured it at 1.1uH/meter, which is well within acceptable levels. Their capacitance is in the low-medium range at 60 pF/meter.

Unfortunately, construction of the coiled neutral for most DIYer's can get tricky if you want cables over 12 ft long.

I have had feedback from others that have tried them and it has all been extremely positive. The cables seem to work very well on both tube and solid state.

They provide stunning dynamics and clarity, with a well controlled and deep bass and a very spacious and detailed image

If you have any questions, just ask - Steve

I have done it myself but I think the cable may have a bit too much capacitance.  The sound lacks a bit of transparency and the bass is a bit compromised.  And those CAT5 cables are not cheap.  I think you're better off buying some decent affordable speaker cables such as QED or the likes which have quite better transparency.