Are DIY Cables Worth It?

Hi Springowl,

In answer to your question regarding purity, I have some experience to share. Over the last few months I have been testing some different wire purities and alloys. To my surprise I have not heard any significant difference between 99.995% pure silver, 99.95%, 99.5% and unbelievably 92.5% silver/7.5% copper (sterling silver). In fact my ears preferred the sterling over the high purities. I begin to wonder about the purity claims and their need to be so high. I do understand that ultra-pure silver and copper will tarnish less, but???

I have also had some rather interesting discussions with the refiner who claims they can not guarantee the purity of silver above 99.95% due to silvers tendency to pick up contaminants during the wire pulling process. They claim they could start with 5-nine silver, but the end wire product will not test out at that purity due to this tendency of silvers.

In the end, it all is a mute point. Whatever the claims and the true results, it's the resulting sonic quality that matters, not the metallurgy.

jd

I'm begging to see more of this more in some cable co.

Sorry for the bad sentence, I meant to say "I'm begining to see more of this in some cable co."

Springowl,

Proper cryo treating removes midrange colorations and improves clarity, as well as extending the highs.

Just found this thread today, sorry about the delay. I'm still in the midst of auditioning the CheLa cable with my Art Audio Carissa Sig. and Merlin VSM-MM w/ superbam. Thus far in direct comparison (within present setup) I prefer the CHela to Synergistic Res. Ref and Synergistic Sig. 10's. The Res. Ref's silver simply doesn't work with Merlins in my system, way too thin, analytical, the Sig 10's (Syn top copper cable) are better but still a bit thin and perhaps a bit too fast. The Chela seems to slow the pace down a bit, much more natural sounding here. The Chela also has more stable imaging, the center is much more filled out (greater depth and image dimensionality) than the Syn. cables. I've also noticed a more musical presentation with the Chela, at first it seemed I was lacking some of the lower level detail I was hearing with the Syns, but with more time I began to hear a more continuous and phase coherent sound. Its as though the Syns brought up the level of background information to an unatural level, I think this may have played a part in the image instability I was hearing with those cables. The Chela better balances the lower and higher level details.
From my many auditions with tons of cables through the years I would describe the Chela as just slightly warm of neutral, I suspect with some setups there could be bass issues. All in all I believe the Chelas are a great value, easy but time consuming to build. Take your time, trim the individual wires to exactly the same length, use the Furutech or WBT spades, some techflex, Quicksilver Gold treatment, heat shrink and you will have good sounding and professional looking cables.
The real test of these cables will come this weekend, the standard cable for Merlins, the Cardas Golden Refs coming in for audition. Both the Chela and Golden Refs are copper litz cables, the design to use according to Bobby, we shall see.