I made them. I made the full 27 pair with the recommended Belden Teflon-insulated 24ga wire. Mine were only 5 feet long, but it's still bloody hard work.
If I had to do it again, I'd only use one pair of the 4 pairs inside the Cat 5 cable (each pair is a different colour and has a different twist rate for noise rejection).
I caution you NOT to braid them too tight - it's much harder and you can easily get a short. Loose is better.
Use the best spades you can find - I used Kimber Postmasters - because you have to get 27 copper wires in there, and it's not easy with cheap spades.
Don't use any covering over the braid.
They take quite a while to break in, but they were stable in my system and sounded very nice.
They are quite a challenge to build but one does feel some degree of success at the end that far exceeds going to a store and buying something.
I eventually replaced the Cat 5s with hand-made silver foil cables.
Regards,
If I had to do it again, I'd only use one pair of the 4 pairs inside the Cat 5 cable (each pair is a different colour and has a different twist rate for noise rejection).
I caution you NOT to braid them too tight - it's much harder and you can easily get a short. Loose is better.
Use the best spades you can find - I used Kimber Postmasters - because you have to get 27 copper wires in there, and it's not easy with cheap spades.
Don't use any covering over the braid.
They take quite a while to break in, but they were stable in my system and sounded very nice.
They are quite a challenge to build but one does feel some degree of success at the end that far exceeds going to a store and buying something.
I eventually replaced the Cat 5s with hand-made silver foil cables.
Regards,