DIY cables

Do yourself a favor and check out my system. https://systems.audiogon.com/systems/8367 Don't just look at the pictures. Read the description. DIY turntable. DIY rack. DIY DBA. DIY acoustics. DIY power center. And even the stuff that's not DIY is modded.

Got it? Okay. So I am mega into DIY. Highly experienced, highly skilled- did you look at that turntable?? The subs?? And yet, notice there are no DIY cables. That's because I always and everywhere try things out and go with whatever is the absolute best for the money. If I can do the same or better for the money DIY then its DIY. Nobody nowhere no how gonna match the Miller Carbon for anywhere near what I have into it. Ditto subs, rack, etc.

So if you're following along then you know, "always and everywhere try things out" means I must have tried DIY cables. Yet notice, no DIY cables. Now why do you suppose that is? Take a minute. Study the system. No DIY cables. Hmmm...

My attempts at DIY cables pale in comparison to this one audiophile who had a whole basement lab bench devoted to building DIY cables. Dude had 30 years building DIY cables. Every material, every construction design, every reverse-engineered overpriced (in his eyes) highly regarded cable he could find. 

One day he comes over all excited to show off his masterpiece, the One Cable to rule them all. He copied some megabuck wire and his copy sounded identical (in his system) to his DIY. Finally he is gonna glow in pride and watch me eat crow for doubting him. 

Oh and btw when you start following my posts you'll learn a lot and know this stuff and then be able to concentrate on comparison contrasting as my writing style relating these repetitive stories improves.

So anyway we listen and his DIY is so much flatter, deader, grainier, and all around awfuller that even he has to admit it. Total fail. 

Now here is the kicker. Notice above where I said he couldn't hear the difference? In his system. So now let that one sink in. Got it? The dude had so much awful DIY it had messed up his system to the point he couldn't even tell these obviously different wires apart. Despite the fact this is a guy who for years and probably to this very day regards his system as more "revealing". Even though its incapable of revealing even as huge a difference as this.

So go ahead, drink the Kool aid. DIY cables if you want. Its your money. Your ears. Your life. "I Did It My Way" is popular for a reason. Do they even have a song about the guy who does it the best way, even when it means doing the same as everybody else? Maybe they should.

I'm a fan of DIY cables. I think you can build quality cables if you use high quality raw materials, careful construction including high pressure crimping of connections, and good design. 

That said, building a speaker cable using cheap copper wire and then adding inductance and capacitance and soldering the connections fails on all counts. 

OKAY MC what cables do you use. Are they system specific? 
My setup:
Parasound A21 +
Parasound p5
Magnapan 1.7i w stands
Oppo bdp83
Klipsch r10sw
All bluejean cables

Hi MC
Correct me if I'm wrong but there appears to be a diy braided speaker cable in one or two of your photos?

OKAY MC what cables do you use.

Cryogenically treated 4ga wire comes in the wall and is hard wired into the Medusa along with the dedicated ground and 110V AC that after going through the conditioner goes back into the wall and up and across the ceiling to the projector. These wires are all covered in mesh.

The stock Origin Live tone arm cables coming out of the Conqueror tone arm are retro-modded to add Active Shielding. Ditto the Verus motor umbilical. These are not DIY cables these are adding Active Shielding as a mod after the fact.

Herron to Melody is Synergistic Research Atmosphere Level III Euphoria IC grounded to dedicated system earth ground.

Melody to Khorus speakers is SR Element Copper Tungsten Silver speaker cables with Active Shielding, MPCs modded with caps and diodes by Michael Spallone and hardwired into the Medusa with Audio Consulting isolation transformer and a bunch of top secret magic stuff by me and my Fight Club pal.

There’s another IC that looks like a ribbon, that one I think is Jungson and in the system pics is connected to the Oppo CDP but not pictured is a little adaptor. I usually watch movies off my laptop. For movies the laptop goes on top of the Oppo, the adaptor and the HDMI cable you can see laying there goes in the laptop, and I just move the one IC back and forth between the CDP and the laptop.

The HDMI cable is Cobalt. Its cryo’d. There’s another HDMI cable coming out of the wall, you can see it laying there on the floor just behind the amp. Its abandoned. I had 2 HDMI one for cable one for DVD/laptop.

Power cords are Synergistic Master Coupler going to the Oppo, Synergistic Resolution Reference to the Herron, and 2 Shunyata whatever’s going to the Verus motor controller and the Melody.

There's an embarassingly crappy no-name IC going to the Dayton sub amps. Then from one sub amp to the Talon Roc sub is another Jungson IC.

There’s 2 cheesy looking ElectraGlide Fat Boys going straight into the Dayton amps. One has "Cryo" written on it. That’s a vestige of way back when I was DYODD on cryo I had a few things done keeping one stock to compare. But those are Electraglide not DIY.

The power cords are at this point the weakest of all. Except I just wrapped them and everything else with some top secret magic stuff I can’t tell anyone about that elevated their performance well into kilo-buck thin air. But I did not say this. I was not here. (Yes Guild Navigator speak. Deal with it.)

Correct me if I’m wrong but there appears to be a diy braided speaker cable in one or two of your photos?

That’s the complete list. Where on the list, where in the system description do you see any mention of Miller Cables. Because I am rather proud of the stuff I build. When it works. When it doesn’t, you won’t see it. Which is why its not there. If I posted pics of all my failures.... DIY cables would be in there. Utter waste of time. It was the Active Shielding mods, that’s what you thought was DIY?