DIY AC Cable advice

Good advice from Dgarretson. I happily use the Furutech Alpha 3 cords on my monoblocks, but they are unshielded. For source gear, I suggest Furutech FP-3TS20 or Neotech NEP-3002. Both are shielded and both are made with with PC-OCC copper. I prefer gold (not rhodium) plugs and iecs
I suggest connecting all three wires (N, L and G) at each end but connecting the braid shield to ground ONLY at the plug end. Good luck.

Agree with Mitch2 on using shielded cables for source components, especially digital.

I have built a cord using Acrolink 7 nines copper and Oyaide C-004 and P-004 connectors which I think sounds outstanding on my W4S Dac 2 DSD. Very dynamic, smooth, and detailed all at the same time. It replaced several 'trys', some of which were actually pretty decent, including a Tek-Line PC12?, TG-Audio HSRi, Pangea 14SE, and a few others. I think Acrolink's 7N is a significant step forward from the 6N wire from only a year or two ago. And whatever they are doing with the 'stress free' manufacturing and the new dielectrics must be contributing as well. Very refined sound.

I also use the Acrolink 7 nines copper cord (as recommended by Keithtexas) with excellent results. I must confess that I have not heard the Elrod cable and so do not know the "Elrod type Sound". Moreover I not have a stand-alone DAC and so cannot predict how the cable will interface with your DAC. I made two cables, one used on my McCormack LD2 analog preamp and the other on my Odyssey Khartago extreme power amp. I used Oyaide C-009 and P-009 plugs. Oyaide manufacture connectors using various materials to enable you to tailor the sound you desire by using one or other of their connectors. I used the 009 connections because they provide a warmer sound.

How much DIY effort do you want to get into?

If you simply want to put a couple of connectors onto some bulk cable, then ignore this post.

If your DIY skills go beyond that and you want to actually make your own high performance "cable" then click on

DIY: Spiral Power Cable ($$80)title

I've tried Power cables up to $1500 and they do not compare to the tonal qualities (extremely neutral), dynamic performance and low noise floor that these cables provide.

They take around 300 hours to fully burn in, but you may even hear better performance after around 450 hour - depending on the attached component(s)

Regards...