Are DIY Cables Worth It?

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.

Go to the Cable Asylum and look up the reviews of VenHaus cables. VenHaus makes good products available to the audiophile 'masses'.

Cable matters but its quality must be in proportion to the system's quality: too good and it will start revealling a lot of flaws (both gear and recordings), not good enough well, not good enough.

For your system I'd definitely use something good, but not overboard. The mapleshade entry level speaker wire comes to mind:

Clearview Golden Helix

It is a single conductor, silver plated copper with minimum insulation. Good enough for present and forseeable needs.

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Thank you for the recommendation on the Mapleshade cables; they look very promising.

I would like to address as assumption about price/quality ratio for this thread. For any general quality-level of speaker cable there are great prices, average prices, and premium prices. With my original question about whether DIY'ing these cables would be worth it or not, I guess I should be asking how much I would expect to pay (at an average price for the quality of speaker cable that is produced) for the finished version of these cables.

Everyone has been so helpful so far!

I guess I should be asking how much I would expect to pay (at an average price for the quality of speaker cable that is produced) for the finished version of these cables.

Nicely put! I can only answer that question regrading a particular cable -- not in absolute terms.

I use diy cables. For both ic & spkrs. My case is unusual in that diy replaces an expensive model fm a popular brand (Nordost Valhalla).

As to Chris Venhaus: he's an audiophile and much of the stuff he offers is very good (caps, for example). But, @$18/ft he's not the cheapest around; Mapleshade for one, is cheaper.

I would suggest you diy your IC for the time being.