Are DIY Cables Worth It?

I assembled a pair of the VH Audio Chela speaker cables you are mentioning. I spent some extra on nice WBT spade terminations with it.

It took me half an evening to put together due to the many wires to strip.

The sound is to my ears very neutral, and they replaced a pair of Acoustic Zen Satori cables, which are somewhat warmer sounding but the Chela cables sound more detailed and airy with more spacious sound.

I haven't auditioned any $2000 speaker cables but I can't imagine taking the Chela cables out of my system, they are I believe to be that good. I have a pretty resolving system with Yamamoto 45 SET amp and single driver Omega speakers and a Transporter music server.

48 hook-up wires in parallel? That would be fun to terminate. Don't get any of those confused on +/- because amps don't like shorts. At least it would look impressively thick with all that "secret" type of insulation.

For less than $200 (don't ask me how):
http://www.ultimatecables.com/

There's also 10/2 cabtire (SOW) for much less. 10/4 for biwiring.

I beta tested the VH Audio speaker cables you're considering in the summer of 2004 and thought they sounded very good. Luckily they came to me already made so I didn't have to play audiophile crochet with them.

First I am not sure that $2000 cables necessarily implies better sound than $200 cables. More expensive yes.

Second, of course DIY cables with similar materials and properly terminated will sound the same as what you get from a manufacturer. There is no added magic at the factory...it is just a cable and a termination plug, hardly rocket science! Besides cables make only very slight differences (rarely audible if your gear is SS and with 8 ohm box speakers with no crazy impedance dips).

I have NHT 2.5 speakers and a Harmon Kardon AVR 240 receiver, so I doubt I would reap many benefits from super high-quality cables. Right now I'm using Monster cables, and I don't really have a problem with them, but from the things I read on different virtual systems about how "this cable made my system sound warm and sweet" and "that cable added a depth of philosophical knowledge to my system," I got curious about whether or not I needed some nice cables.

I like the poetic language, and I'm just wondering if good cables can persuade my ears into making me say things like that.